


Episode 3-21 - "Sense of Worth"

by ComradeTortoise, stgjr



Series: Undiscovered Frontier Season 3 - "The Coming Storm" [21]
Category: Babylon 5, Original Work
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multiple Crossovers, Multiverse, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:23:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 48,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22600141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ComradeTortoise/pseuds/ComradeTortoise, https://archiveofourown.org/users/stgjr/pseuds/stgjr
Summary: Leo faces prejudice and violence while helping a refugee camp of telepaths on a war-torn Earth.
Series: Undiscovered Frontier Season 3 - "The Coming Storm" [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/875274
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3
Collections: Undiscovered Frontier - A Multiverse Crossover Space Opera





	1. Chapter 1

**Teaser**  
  
  
_Ship's Log: 13 December 2643 AST; ASV Aurora. Captain Kaveri Varma recording. At 0756 hours New Liberty time the Aurora arrived on station at Earth, Universe Designate T7C8. Our purpose is to facilitate a peaceful first contact with the planetary government of this Earth and support humanitarian aid. Earth T7C8 is still recovering from a civil war waged against the planetary government. It was a conflict only ended due to outside intervention from the war criminal James Hawk.  
  
It would seem that once again the Alliance is bound to pick up the pieces left behind by that man._  
  
  
It was 0920 when Kaveri heard the chime on the ready office door. "You may enter," she called out.  
  
She'd anticipated Commander Meridina and the Gamma Shift's watch logs to review and sign off on. Instead Captain Robert Dale was the figure that stepped in, wearing his silver-trimmed intelligence officer's uniform that covered for his role as a Paladin of the Alliance.  
  
As much as the Alliance needed special forces capable of standing against dark forces, Kaveri did not think Paladins, uncomfortably like secret police or unaccountable secret agents, were the correct choice. None of it showed on her face, however. "Your mission went well?" she asked politely and correctly.  
  
"Well, it went smoothly, at least," he replied. He sensed something of her sentiment and said nothing about it out of politeness, not to mention his own occasional concern about what the Paladins could become. He nodded politely to Group Captain Bet'tir. The Dilgar woman had the flying eye pin of the Mha'dorn, the Dilgar telepath organization, and still wore the more elaborate uniform of the Union of Tira and Rohric's military. Officially she was Kaveri's personal adjutant while she was on Alliance duty, but it was something of an open secret that she was here to personally protect Kaveri given she was Warmaster Shai'jhur's wife.  
  
He continued speaking on the matter, as much as he could, while he casually had an old folk song his grandfather loved play in his head. "A face to face contact with a potential pro-Alliance asset in S2C3 that went off without any violence. I never even had to draw my lightsaber."  
  
"If only all our missions were so easy." Kaveri took a sip from her cup of _chai_. "S2C3. I have seen that universe mentioned in a number of the recent fleet orders. They're keeping a dreadnought squadron active there at all times now. It seems an unwelcome drain on our resources given the lingering Dominion issue."  
  
"The growth of our economic and diplomatic contacts with the Umojan Protectorate makes that inevitable, as dangerous as it might be. For one thing, it means our relations with the dictator of the Terran Dominion are getting frostier by the day." Robert decided not to say anything more about the issue. "Emperor" Arcturus Mengsk was shaping up to be a future pain.  
  
"The reports on the Protoss remind me of what it was like to learn about the Vorlons." Kaveri said those words while glancing at a digital tablet with the report on T7C8 Earth still displaying on it. "But I am being reminded of my home universe's history in other ways today."  
  
"I can see why." Robert leaned forward in his chair.  
  
"You were the one who brought this world to our attention, I hear?"  
  
He nodded. "I did. The coordinates were cast into my mind just before Hawk and his people beamed off of Tau Atrea."  
  
Kaveri replied with a nod, leaving Robert to considering his encounter with Hawk on that mission. The Tau Atrea mission still stood out among the others he'd taken as a Paladin, given the encounter with the Liberationist faction of the Psi Corps and the first indication of the threat posted by the Aristo rulers of the Eubian Concord of A5R0.  
  
The most important part of that mission, at this moment, was his second encounter with James Hawk. The interuniversal rogue — and accused war criminal — fought on his side that day, working with Robert and the Psi Corps settlers to fight off the Aristos' hired guns. The two had even had a face-to-face discussion (or rather argument) that gave Robert important insights into Hawk's character.  
  
But it was Hawk's subordinate on that mission that prompted their current mission. Rebekah bat Gurion hailed from the war-torn Earth spinning below them. She was one of that planet's telepath minority population who joined up with Hawk out of gratitude for his putting down the most vicious of the factions in the war, the telepath-killing "Dissolutionists".  
  
"Before I left the Corps' settlement, Max Cohen let me know of some of the things Becca told him about her homeworld," he continued, for Kaveri's benefit. "Honestly, as much of a threat as they can be to Multiversal peace, this is one case where I wonder if Hawk and his crew weren't doing the right thing. The Dissolutionists were butchers, pure and simple. They committed multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially when it came to telepaths."  
  
"I can understand the sentiment." She glanced to the pad again. She was up to the confirmation on the "psi-bomber" program, when Dissolutionist forces made captured telepaths become psionic suicide attackers to save their families from execution.  
  
Robert didn't have the report from in front of him, but he'd read it enough to remember the key points. "Reportedly some Dissolutionist groups are still active, even though their ability to maintain organized resistance was destroyed by Hawk. They've fallen back on terrorist attacks in several locations and are turning to guerilla war in others. The central government's still trying to crush them, and they're starting to turn authoritarian in the pursuit of that. And they aren't much better toward telepaths. They see them as weapons and tools more than living people."  
  
"A _familiar_ flaw, to me," Kaveri said, a certain harshness in her tone.  
  
Robert nodded once. "I saw the similarity too."  
  
"It is, perhaps, greater than you know." Kaveri set the tablet down. "We like to pretend that our Earth is a fully unified world with a unified people. But the truth is the Earth Alliance's popularity is not and has never been universal. It nearly collapsed several times during the 22nd Century. Without the first contact with the Centauri, a fourth World War would have been inevitable for us." Kaveri turned thoughtful. "Sometimes I believe such a conflict is still inevitable."  
  
"I read that Earthforce has had to put down anti-Earth Alliance _coup_ s in some of your constituent nations?"  
  
"The uprising of the African Bloc, yes. The Martians' repeated efforts to break away. The Canal Wars. And the War of the Shining Star saw millions of dead across East Asia."  
  
Robert felt an emotional resonance in her. It coalesced into a memory of a much younger Kaveri finding a small, crying child in the wreckage of that war, a little Chinese girl. "Your daughter Zhengli, Zhen'var I mean. That's how you adopted her?"  
  
She nodded. "It was. My first assignment was in the peacekeeping force in Guangxi during the rebuilding." The thoughtful look remained on her face. "For all the blood shed during the recent civil war, it was at least brief. Sheridan is a true believer in the Earth Alliance and fought to reform it, not break it up. Looking at these reports of T7C8 Earth, I see what we might have become. What we might yet become."  
  
"They might have a chance to be better," Robert pointed out. "From the data we have, the central government has to deal with a reform movement popular in several regions and countries. And while some of their political figures are pushing for authoritarian, arguably fascist measures to suppress the reformist movement, it's not a universal sentiment in their government. Reform is possible."  
  
"Reform is usually possible, but it rarely comes easily. I'm aware you have an interest in the plight of telepaths, Captain."  
  
"I have an interest in the plights of any mistreated people," Robert replied. "I want them to be free. I know it sounds a little canned, but that's why I'm out here."  
  
"It is worthwhile, at least. I've always felt our treatment of our telepaths was one of the great crimes of our society," Kaveri said. "And now I see another world starting down the same dreadful path mine took."  
  
Robert nodded in reply to that. "Part of the talks will be trying to convince the United Earth government to firm up its devotion to civil rights. Stopping them from conscripting telepath children will be a part of that."  
  
"It will not be easy. They will resist it, not just from the usefulness of telepaths, but because they will not want to feel that they were forced into the decision by a greater force."  
  
"So we'll have to persuade them to do it themselves," he said.  
  
A silence followed, indicating the discussion was over. Robert was ready to stand and head off but stopped himself when he remembered what else he'd come to tell her. "On another matter, Captain, I figured you'd like to hear this." Seeing he had her attention he continued. "The _Huáscar_ just re-established contact with the fleet and Zhen'var made her initial report on their mission. It was in my update from Portland last night. They're on their way back to Alliance space now."  
  
A gentle, satisfied expression came to Kaveri, resonating with the relief Robert sensed in her. "That is good to hear. Thank you for sharing it, Captain."  
  
"I can't go into particulars on what happened out there, but going by what I read, Zhen'var made you proud with what she did."  
  
“She always has. My daughter is not faultless, but I have _never_ failed to be satisfied by her upholding of _dharma_.”  
  
Any further discussion was halted by the chime for the door. Kaveri bid the person outside to enter. Meridina stepped in carrying a digital pad. She nodded to Kaveri and then to Robert, giving Bei'tir the customary telepathic recognition as she did, before stepping up and handing the pad to Kaveri. "The Gamma Shift reports and logs, Captain," she said politely. "And Deputy Secretary Crawford informed me that we are due to transport down at eleven hundred hours."  
  
"We should prepare." Kaveri accepted the pad and brought it up to read. "You have arranged the Officer of the Watch in your place already?"  
  
"Commander Locarno will be assuming the watch, Captain."  
  
"Very good. We shall see you in the Transporter Station, Commander."  
  
Robert stood. "I'll let you get to it, then, and I'll go check on other matters."  
  
He put it carefully, but he sensed both knew what he meant. The decoding of the _Life of Reshan_ was proceeding despite the difficulties of finding the message within had become gibberish. Or, more likely, a code within a code, one they would need to figure out how to decipher if they were to learn the secrets that the Cylons and the Brotherhood of Kohbal went to such great lengths to find out.  
  
"Miss Inviere believes she's found the end of the double-coded segment," Meridina said.  
  
"I'll consult with her then, and leave you both to the diplomacy side of things. Good luck."  
  
He didn't bother adding that they'd probably need it.  
  


**Undiscovered Frontier  
_"Sense of Worth"_ **

  
  
  
Dr. Leo Gillam, Chief Medical Officer of the _Aurora_ , had seen many a sight in his life, particularly after the change that came with the discovery of the Darglan Facility.  
  
He was thus fairly prepared for the sight of a tent city, and that of rubble.  
  
His difficulty came with the location.  
  
While he ultimately made the friends that defined his life after his parents moved to the flat farming counties of the Kansas prairie, Leo's first twelve years of life were spent in the urban spaces of Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up mostly in the environs of Marietta, he had memories associated with every corner of the city in question. And while he'd seen poverty there on his Earth, it was nothing like this.  
  
The tent city was put up among assorted buildings, mostly the broken remains of apartment structures, warehouses, and commercial spaces. Some of these buildings were still partially intact and were being used, but a number were nothing but a pile of rubble. In the distance, he could see the Atlanta skyline now containing half-skeletal remains of skyscrapers gutted by explosions, adding to the sense of ruin and destitution.  
  
The sight stunned him enough that he remained stationary for several moments, only jolted out of it by the voice of the _Aurora_ 's security chief, Lt. Commander Phryne Richmond. "Doctor, is there a problem?" Her upper class Australian accent stood out compared to the others on the _Aurora_ command staff.  
  
Before he could reply, one came from the figure beside him. "He grew up here." Lt. Commander Caterina Delgado, the ship's Science Officer, gave him a sympathetic look. "Right?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
By this time a group of people approached, three men and two women. One of each was African-descended, like Leo, and the rest were Caucasian or of brown, multi-racial appearance. They moved with a certainty before coming to a stop a meter in front of the _Aurora_ group. "You're more of the Humans from another universe," said the lead figure, the African-American woman. "Thanks for coming here, I didn't really expect to see more help."  
  
"Going by our preliminary scans this site looked like it needed priority."  
  
"We do. I'm Nysha Williams, and I'm the elected leader of the Atlanta Telepath Community," she replied.  
  
"Ah." Leo sighed. He'd been there for the briefing the night before on what to expect. "Dr. Lenoard Gillam, Chief Medical Officer on the Alliance _Starship Aurora_. I'm guessing that's why you didn't expect us?"  
  
"We're used to being ignored by the Unies," another member of the group said. "They give us cast-offs that their occupation troops don't need."  
  
"Which is better than what the locals give us, which is the stink eye and violent thoughts." Nysha sighed. "And before you ask, yes, we can sense your surface thoughts, we can't help it, and it's as annoying to us as it's frustrating to you."  
  
"We work with telepaths," Cat assured them. "We know how that works."  
  
Leo noticed the way their eyes shifted. They were surprised but also seemed a little relieved. "The Gersallians have telepaths," he added, elaborating on what Cat said. "Our ship's XO is one, as is our ship's civilian psychiatrist."  
  
"I'll believe it when I see it," said one of the men. "Way it's gone for us, banals either want to kill us or make us their tools."  
  
Leo knew better than to protest their purpose. _Actions, not words_ , he thought, knowing they'd pick it up.  
  
"Allow me to introduce my colleagues. Walter Smith, Irma Michaels, Kevin O'Hare, and Sam Laffler."  
  
Leo took the lead in shaking hands while the others introduced themselves. "Given your situation, I'm betting you have a secure space for medical supplies?"  
  
"This way, Doctor."  
  
Nysha's comrades stayed with them for the walk from their beam-in point towards the center of the camp. Leo looked around at what looked like assorted families and individuals. Some were eating military rations, some were carrying pails or pots of water. Some just seemed to be staring into space. Children ran about from tent to tent, playing, but Leo found children always played when they could whatever their circumstances. _Even when everything around them is rubble_.  
  
"Just what happened here?" he asked.  
  
"Atlanta was the capital of the New Confederacy," Nysha said. "After that offworlder ship wrecked the Dissolutionists' main forces, the Union and the Pacific Fed broke through the lines. The Dissies scraped together enough guns and troops to fight for Atlanta, but that was just them being diehards. The Unies put them down, hard, and ruined the city doing it."  
  
"I grew up in this city," Leo said. "On my Earth, anyway. I can't imagine how it must've felt to see armies wrecking your home."  
  
"Oh, I was cheering the invaders on," Nysha said. "All of us were. The Telepath Underground helped us find places to live under the Dissie regime, but it wasn't the easiest living. People were always accusing one another of being teeps, even other banals, and heaven help any teep they actually caught."  
  
"I read the reports," was all Leo said on that. Inwardly he seethed at what he'd read. Unethical medical experiments, forced druggings that ruined telepaths' senses and took the will to live from them, straight up executions. The fact that actual medical doctors had participated in these activities offended him at a basic level.  
  
"Yeah, we can tell," the other woman remarked. "Maybe don't make it so loud?"  
  
Leo winced. "Sorry."  
  
"Just to clarify, 'Dissie' or Dissolutionist were those who wanted to eliminate your global government, yes?" Richmond asked.  
  
"Pretty much. And half of the Dissie nations and groups hated the other half, but they could agree on two things." Nysha scowled. "They hated the Unies, and they _really_ hated telepaths. So they started the war to try and wreck the Unie government, make the world ungovernable, and to kill as many telepaths as they could get their hands on."  
  
"They think we're lab experiments, not real people," one of the others added.  
  
"Here in North America, something like half the states voted to withdraw, and when the Unie-backed Union government refused, they declared the New Confederacy and joined the war. Took half of the North American military with them when they did, and the Pacific Fed took another chunk."  
  
"And they are?"  
  
"Pacific Coast. Columbia, California, Oregon. They broke with the Union over the conscription laws and the Federal Telepath Regulatory Act," Nysha said. "They formed their own government with Hawaii and New Zealand and a bunch of Pacific Islands. It's one of the few countries left where telepaths have rights."  
  
"Then why don't you move there?" asked Cat.  
  
"Because the Unies won't let anyone leave the 'security zones'," Lafler snarled. "They arrest anyone who tries without authorized papers."  
  
The conversation ended as they stepped through an intact door into what looked to have once been an office supply company. Nysha led them through a shattered office space to a storage area that was two-thirds empty. "As you can see," she said, "we have a lot of space for you, and we've got people watching around the clock."  
  
Leo and the others looked about the room. Most of the goods present looked like the kind of aid one got from charities, and indeed some was in boxes labeled with crosses and other religious iconography. "Aside from the Unies' leftovers, our only source of supplies are religious charities," Nysha explained.  
  
There was an exception, however. In one corner were stacks of supplies that were clearly from another Earth. Working around these stacks were three people taking an inventory. One was in a pale blue lab coat and the other in something that seemed to be nurse's scrubs while the third was a woman in a black suit. Her hair was dyed a bright shade of pink, causing her to stand out among the others.  
  
"It seems one of the supply ships already came to you," Richmond remarked.  
  
"They call themselves the Jenny Winters Foundation," Nysha explained. "They beat you by about an hour."  
  
"They must have come down the moment we signaled the all-clear," Cat observed. Cat also noticed that as she bent over the lab coat was draped to one side and the slacks underneath caught in just the right places.  
  
The woman turned around and gave Cat a once over. “You know, if you’re going to undress me with your eyes, you could at least buy me a coffee first…”  
  
Nysha and the others sensed a telepathic reply. _Sister, be gentle…  
  
Of course I will, but come on, how often do I get to do this?_ was the reply.  
  
“Wait, what…”Cat froze, and noticed the black gloves and Psi Corps badge on the woman’s coat. A deep blush came to her cheeks. “Oh God, I’m sorry.”  
  
The coat-wearing woman grinned. “It’s fine! I wouldn’t be a mind-nudist if I thought otherwise. In my own head, I am completely naked.”  
  
Richmond exchanged a curious look with Leo. "I wasn't aware that we had an Earth Alliance contingent with the aid fleet," she said. "I thought it was only Alliance, Federation, and Systems Alliance groups participating?"  
  
“Not precisely accurate.” The reply came from a man in pale blue set of nurse's scrubs. He bore a clear resemblance to the woman. “There is no _Earth Alliance_ involvement here. However, a certain obvious sub-population within the Earth Alliance might have registered an NGO with the Alliance government. I’m Thomas Spencer, this is my sister Dr. Abigail Spencer, and our silent companion here is Kusko Al. And I do apologize for my sister, she gets a bit cheeky.” Tom shot her a glance.  
  
Leo nodded to them. "Good to meet you Doctor." He extended a hand. "I'm Doctor Leonard Gillam of the _Starship Aurora_. This is Lieutenant Commander Phryne Richmond, Chief of Security, and Lieutenant Commander Caterina Delgado, our Science Officer." He went on to introduce Nasri and the other nurses with him.  
  
“A pleasure.” Abigail replied and shook first, with Kusko second, and Tom last. “We’ve heard good things about you and your ship. As you can imagine after recent events we have an interest in helping the telepaths of this planet. And I do apologize Commander, I only meant to play with you a little bit, not mortify you.”  
  
"No, no, it's fine," Cat insisted, still blushing a deep red. "I'm just, I… never mind."  
  
To relieve Cat from her embarrassment, if nothing else, Leo picked up the conversation. "Well, they need every bit of help they can get from what I've seen. I'll have our coordinates relayed to the ship so we can beam supplies directly in here, and we can get started in cataloguing everything."  
  
"When you say 'science officer', what do you mean?" Nysha asked, speaking up now that the introduction was over. "In some Dissolutionist regimes, their idea of 'science officers' were the ones responsible for experimentation."  
  
"Oh, it's nothing like that!" Cat answered. "Well, we do experiments, but not like, you know, like that. We do _good_ experiments, like studying flora and fauna and running simulations and examining spatial phenomena."  
  
“A lot of their ships do exploration in addition to military duties. They need people for that, in addition to… I’ll call it quantum chicanery, during combat operations.” Tom explained by way of interlocution.  
  
Leo chuckled. "You'll have to pardon her enthusiasm, Cat's always loved the exploration element of science. I don't think there's a planet, asteroid, or star she hasn't happily scanned." His piqued anger at what Nysha described slipped back into his thoughts. "Nothing like what those butchers you're describing did."  
  
“Yeah that…” Abigail shuddered “and the Unies are not much better, from what we’ve picked up. They get a bit _close to home_ , if you understand my meaning. Unfortunately we have the benefit of hindsight.” Which was directed toward Nysha. Kusko Al nodded and glanced between them. It gave Leo the feel that more was being said.  
  
Whatever it was, it wasn't his business. He keyed his omnitool. "Gillam to _Aurora_ Transporter Station 3."  
  
" _Chief Jayan here, sir_ ," answered a Dorei transporter operator, her accent sounding like a blend of South Asian and Polynesian in tone. " _Are you ready?_ "  
  
"My coordinates, Chief."  
  
Nearby the first pallet of supplies materialized with a buzz and a flash of white light. More started to within seconds. Leo noted the way Nysha and the others were looking at the supplies, as if divine providence had finally come through for them. _Given the way transporters operate, I'm not surprised_ , he thought. "Commander Delgado will be helping you sort out the bio-sciences gear and Commander Richmond will help any security you have."  
  
"I'll show her to Lawton," one of Nysha's fellows offered.  
  
"Good. I'd like to get everything settled so, with your permission, I can make a round in your medical tent," he offered. "I want to pitch in, if I'm welcome."  
  
"It'll be welcome, Doctor, and honestly, we're not in the best position to refuse it," said Nysha. "We only have a few trained nurses and some untrained ones."  
  
"You don't have a physician?" he asked.  
  
"We did," was all she would answer. The two medical telepaths went stiff.  
  
Leo nodded and sighed. "Well, between Doctor Spencer, myself, and anyone else we can call in, I hope to make good for that." As he spoke a thought went unbidden through his head. _I hope Richmond won't be working as hard as it looks she will be._  
  
Abigail gave him a slightly reproachful look, and he knew that he’d tempted fate.  
  
He flashed a weak grin her way, knowing precisely what she meant.  
  
  
  
Kaveri, Bei'tir, and Meridina materialized in an open courtyard in front of an elegant ten story structure in Brussels' old "European Quarter". Beside them Deputy Secretary Travis Crawford and a half dozen officials and staff materialized as well.  
  
The delegation were representative of the Alliance as a whole, with one Alakin, two Humans, two Dorei, and three Gersallians beside Crawford himself. They were all in general business wear suitable for diplomacy, but Crawford was clearly here to make an impression. He had a Stetson hat and a bolo tie on a suit of dark green. His weathered face was formed into an easy grin as they were approached by an assemblage of formally dressed persons. Half were in European-style wear, two more had what Meridina recognized as West African formal garb, and a woman who matched Kaveri's skin tone was wearing a formal suit based around a sari. Like Kaveri she had a red dot, a _bindi_ , on her forehead.  
  
She sensed some hostility from the group, particularly a man with a bronze shade and European-style business suit. For the most part that hostility was tinged with worry and fear. _This is not going to be an easy first contact_ , Meridina mused.  
  
"Hey there," Crawford said, his accent one that Meridina was told was a "Texan drawl". "I'm Deputy Secretary Crawford, and these are the rest of my team." He introduced them one by one, revealing an aid specialist, a legal advisor, and an economic analyst among them. "And these fine ladies are Captain Kaveri Varma and Commander Meridina of the _Aurora_."  
  
"I'm National Affairs Secretary Samira Gupta," the woman in the lead position said. She gestured to the others, introducing the man Meridina sensed hostility from as Security Minister Paul Marias, while another figure was Defense Minister Tochiro Kanegawa. "President Lawrence and Premier Gorchkov are waiting for us."  
  
They were led into the building. Inside the main foyer was a memorial depicting a blue flag with a circle of gold stars and a list of names. Seeing their curiosity, Gupta said, "This is a memorial to the personnel of the old Berlaymont building who were killed in a terrorist bombing that destroyed the structure," she explained. "We wished to honor those who stood for the common unity of Humanity."  
  
The explanation fit what Meridina was feeling. She could sense the lingering specter of death and terror here from that event.  
  
Crawford doffed his hat to the memorial and the Gersallians joined Meridina in a contemplative nod of the head in respect to the fallen.  
  
From there they were led to an elevator. Halfway up the building the car came to a stop, allowing them out into a hallway with a lush carpet. Their route took them to a big pair of double doors emblazoned with laurel-contained globe depicting Earth from its northern pole, every continent visible with the Southern Hemisphere on the outside of the image.  
  
Inside was a stone-faced woman of pale complexion and an older bald man. They were introduced as the President and Prime Minister of the United Earth by Gupta, who directed everyone to their seats.  
  
As they sat down, one figure remained seated in the corner, not a part of the discussion. The woman had a bronze skin tone and dark-colored hair showing under her headscarf, a _hajib_. Meridina sensed a telepathic talent in the woman. She also felt lingering resentment in her, a sort of resignation to her life.  
  
Once they were all seated, President Lawrence spoke up. "This is Miss al-Ghazi, a service telepath. She's here to advise us and prevent any mis-understandings from any telepaths in your entourage."  
  
"I am a telepath," Meridina said, "and trained as a…" She almost used " _swevyra'se_ ", but that would be confusing to their hosts. She opted for "...a Knight in the Order of Swenya."  
  
"I am also a telepath," offered the Gersallian aid specialist, a man named Henjasaram. "Although my talent is quite weak."  
  
"I am a telepath as well," Bei'tir said, and said no more on the matter.  
  
There was an uncomfortable look from Kanegawa, but the most intent reaction was from Marias. His mind filled with singing.  
  
"Thank you for being forthcoming," Lawrence said. "And we thank you for the aid being offered to our world. Unfortunately, we must also lodge protests with your government."  
  
"Well now, we've only exchanged comm calls until now," Crawford said. "What's the problem, Madame President?"  
  
"We're informed that you've opened communications with constituent governments of United Earth," she said. "Such as the Pacific Federation and Iran. It is part of the United Earth Charter that our government will handle any communications with off-world bodies."  
  
Lawrence's tone was firm, if not harsh, but Gupta quickly added, "We understand that you may not be aware of our constitutional procedures, Deputy Secretary, but we do wish this to be addressed. It would be much like us opening negotiations with your Alakins instead of the whole Alliance."  
  
"Ah, well, even under the Alliance Constitution that's allowed to an extent, ma'am," Crawford said. "But I understand the point."  
  
"We were simply attempting to ensure our aid went where it was needed," Henjasaram added. "No offense was meant."  
  
"That is understood, but we wish to be clear on this. United Earth will handle our side of your relief efforts, not component governments."  
  
Meridina sensed Marias' intent a moment before he spoke. His words were in English with a Greek accent. "There's also the telepath issue, and your attempts to support telepath supremacist and liberation movements."  
  
This time the response from the assembled was confusion. "Mister Minister, I'm afraid we're at a loss," Crawford said. "We just got here."  
  
Meridina sensed distrust and uncertainty from the others, and a certain sentiment from Marias that Lucy would've called "smugness". "You claim to have nothing to do with these groups, but what we have proof to the contrary," he insisted. He brought up a digital device and tapped a key.  
  
This brought a holotank built into the table on. They were treated to footage of a raid. Meridina frowned at the sight of armed people being gunned down by figures in tactical uniforms of some sort. The footage shifted to showing open cases with weapons.  
  
Darglan weapons.  
  
The confusion from Crawford and his people was palpable. Meridina noted the telepath al-Ghazi nodding to Premier Gorchkov, who whispered something to Lawrence.  
  
Meanwhile Marias continued. "This was a raid my forces waged last week on a Telepath terror cell in North America. These weapons match yours, do they not? They certainly aren't from our world." Like a prosecuting attorney pressing his case home to a jury, Marias gained a pleased edge to his voice. "In fact, they also resemble the weapons used by the ship called the _Avenger_ when they attacked the Dissolutionists, and your own people admit that Mister Hawk's pirates use the same weapons you do. And they haven't been seen in months. In short, Mister Deputy Secretary Crawford, your government is lying to us, or you've lost control of your people."  
  
It was a blunt accusation and Meridina noticed Crawford's thin frown. "I don't know where those guns came from, Minister, but they didn't come from us. We came here to help you out."  
  
"You came here to wow us with your technology and press change on us. It won't work. We will continue to do what we need to in order to protect the people of this planet from terrorists, saboteurs, and radicals."  
  
"I think Minister Marias has made the point sufficiently," Gorchkov said. "We are sympathetic to the possibility of an error in your government. And maybe this Hawk person did give them guns. Either way, we will decide how telepathy is utilized on our world, no one else."  
  
"It's your world, Premier, not ours. We're just here to give a helpin' hand," Crawford said, his drawl now in an assuring tone. "If someone on our side's doing this, we've got one of our top people in orbit who can find out."  
  
Gupta was quick to take charge of the discussion again. "Excellent. And now that this necessary business is over, we're interested in hearing more about your proposals."  
  
  
S3  
  
Robert sat with Gina and Talara in the cockpit of the _Jayhawk_ , where the comm station activated to present the bearded face of Admiral Maran. The Gersallian military leader, effectively the man in charge of the Allied Systems' military, looked a little less stressed than before. Robert figured it was due to the reorganization at Command to relieve some of his tasks.  
  
" _The President's pleased by your report of the meeting in S2C3. While we hope Emperor Mengsk will continue to observe formal neutrality, it's always good to have options._ "  
  
"What about the Earth government there? This 'United Earth Directorate'?"  
  
" _They've refused communication and the approach of any ships on their settled systems. Intelligence is trying to ascertain if they've gone into isolation due to their expedition into the Koprulu systems, or if this is the start of a retrenchment for further expansionist actions._ " With that question answered Maran's expression shifted. He was ready to get down to business. " _This situation on T7C8 Earth needs consideration. No operation to arm telepath liberation movements or their Reformist states has been approved at any level of the Alliance government._ "  
  
"Meaning either a rogue op, or someone else. Probably Hawk."  
  
" _Maybe, but this doesn't fit his usual behavior_."  
  
"Maybe not, but Lyta Alexander could be having an influence on his planning. Either way, I'm ready to look into it."  
  
" _Has the local government provided any samples of the technology for you?_ "  
  
"A rifle, that's all," Robert said. "And Captain Varma made it sound like it took every bit of charm Secretary Crawford could manage to talk their leaders into providing one. He even went as far as giving them an anti-beaming shield for use at their government HQ, as a gesture of good faith."  
  
Maran wasn't surprised at the shield being provided, and he didn't bother speaking on it. " _Analyze the rifle, see where it came from, and follow where that leads._ "  
  
"Even if it leads to someone on our side?"  
  
"Especially _if it's on our side_ ," Maran insisted.  
  
"I'll get our people on it right away," Robert said. "I'll report back when I have something."  
  
Maran nodded in reply. " _Good. Maran out._ " He cut the line from his end.  
  
"So this is what we'll be focusing on?" Talara asked. "What about the _Life of Reshan_?"  
  
"Lucy's still on light duty and can handle that with Gina," Robert said. "But we'd better go see Captain Kaveri about borrowing Jarod's services. Tom's too."  
  
"We seem to be out of the double-encoded part of the message," Gina said. "The errors used as the code are forming proper words again."  
  
"Maybe they'll give us the clue we need to decipher the segment then. Keep on that until I say otherwise." With that said Robert stood and walked toward the rear of the cockpit.  
  
Talara followed. As they stepped out of the _Jayhawk_ cockpit she asked, "Have you heard anything from Captain Andreys?"  
  
"Yeah, she's been on New Liberty for a few weeks now," he said.  
  
"I hope she has recovered enough to return to us. I respect Captain Varma, but Captain Andreys is… I feel like this is her place."  
  
"It is," Robert agreed. "And I'm sure she'll be back soon enough."  
  
  
  
  
Native avians chirped away from their nests and perches in the surrounding trees of the Lake Park, adding to the appeal of New Liberty Colony's specially-preserved park space and providing a soothing touch to the beauty of the locale. Nearby a stream was flowing on its way to the Carrey River, its color a healthy and lovely blue.  
  
On the bank of the stream, Julia Andreys was going through a form in the art of _t'ai chi chuan_ , a martial arts style she'd favored since her childhood. The chirping birds and the gentle rustle of the stream added to the sense of serenity that she felt as she moved her arms and together and around her body.  
  
Beside her the same movement was repeated by her student, Princess Miko, a resident of the Human-inhabited world found in N1C4. The grand-niece of one of that world's rulers, the Fire Nation's Fire Lord, she held a special place on her world as the Avatar, the one being who could "bend" all four of the traditional elements using metaphysical powers unique to their world.  
  
The more Julia learned about Bending, the more she appreciated the art inherent in it. Each element answered to a specific kind of martial art, one that fit that element's nature. In this case, her favored _t'ai chi_ matched the Waterbending arts, and Miko wanted to learn that style from her in the hopes Julia's teaching would work better than other Waterbending masters she'd tried to learn from.  
  
They finished the form and did the customary closing, Miko bowing to her and Julia bowing back. "Well, I think that's it for today," she said.  
  
"But we… oh." Miko caught herself. "Your appointment."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"You seem worried about it," Miko observed. "Why?"  
  
The question prompted thinking on Julia's part. The appointment was with a Stellar Navy-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Schneider, who was on New Liberty to work with residents still suffering psychological issues from the SS Exiles' attack. She held Julia's future in her hands given her recommendation could see Julia's return to her ship… or her forced retirement from fleet duty.  
  
It was a prospect that honestly scared her when it didn't make her angry. While her ordeal as a captive of the SS Exiles was something she did need time to recover from, that recovery was already accomplished. She wanted, she _needed_ , to be back in her place. On her ship.  
  
"It could decide whether I get my ship back," Julia admitted.  
  
"Oh. Right." Miko's own mother, Princess Ursa, had commanded void ships before she retired to raise Miko. It gave the young woman an inkling what this meant to her teacher.  
  
"I've still got two weeks of medical leave left," Julia said. "But this review will determine whether I get to go back on duty or I remain on psychiatric leave. It might not be determined today, but this is my first session with Dr. Schneider and, yeah, it's a little intimidating." Julia sighed. "I'd love it if she approves my return to duty in one session, but I doubt it."  
  
"I understand. I'll see you later, Sifu?"  
  
"Yes, you will."  
  
  
  
  
After ensuring the inventory work was well-handled, Leo found himself in the tent that housed the Telepath community's care ward. There were several injured and sick people to treat and he went to work, dispensing medication with a hypospray when needed. More extensive treatments would have to wait until the resources were ready, but Leo made sure they were properly tagged.  
  
His current patient was a child that couldn't be older than nine. The little boy's name was Patrick. He had a pale complexion marked, on his face, by little brownish freckles.  
  
On one cheek at least, because the other cheek was one big swollen bruise.  
  
There were other injuries consistent with a beating as well. Leo hid his emotions to provide Patrick a reassuring smile he didn't feel. "Hold on for a moment." He ran a regenerator over the bruises, coaxing the damaged, swollen tissue to return to normal by healing that damage. Relief showed on the child's face.  
  
Beside him, a scrubs-clad young woman with bright red hair arranged in a pony-tail was watching quietly. "This technology is remarkable," she said.  
  
"It's a great tool for healing." Leo finished working on the main bruise. "What happened?"  
  
"Antoine threw the ball over the fence," Patrick answered. "I went to go get it without waiting for an adult. I shouldn't have."  
  
"It was a hate crime," the nurse said, her voice resonating with fury. "Locals hate telepaths with a passion, and they don't care for their age."  
  
"Can you report him?"  
  
"The local police would laugh at us, and the Unies only care if the people are openly supporting Dissie propaganda or have firearms," she replied.  
  
Leo shook his head. "I'm sorry." He looked at the boy while reaching into his lab coat pocket. "So, Patrick, where can I find your parents?"  
  
He regretted the question as pain showed on the child's face. In a weak, sad voice Patrick said, "Mommy and Daddy don't love me anymore."  
  
Leo glanced at the nurse. Ill-concealed fury was written on her features. He felt his stomach twist as he asked, "This happens a lot, doesn't it?"  
  
"Yeah," she said bitterly. "The Dissies sometimes executed the families of telepaths, so it's one of those things, you know? It made people terrified of having a teep in the family. Sometimes they drive them away on manifestation." Turning her attention fully to Leo, she said, "I'm Rose, by the way. Rose Williams."  
  
"Doctor Leo Gillam," he answered. "Any relation to Chairwoman Williams?"  
  
"No blood relation."  
  
With the introductions over, Leo returned his attention to Patrick. "What kind of parent can throw out their own child?"  
  
"People convinced telepaths are the spawn of Satan or a biological experiment made by the Unies," Rose replied.  
  
"You sound like you speak from experience." While speaking Leo took the moment to finish the last regenerator sweep on Patrick, finishing off the last bruise. He pulled his hand out of his lab coat to reveal he was holding four sealed lollipops of purple, red, yellow, and blue color. "You were a good boy, Patrick, take one."  
  
"A lolli!" Patrick quickly picked the purple, grape-flavored one.  
  
"What do we say, Patrick?" Rose asked rhetorically.  
  
"Thank you, Doctor," he replied.  
  
Leo helped him off the table and returned his attention to Rose. "He trusts you. I'm guessing your parents did the same to you?"  
  
She shook her head. "I'm not a telepath. But my younger sister Lily, she manifested a few months before the end of the war. When she got detected the government took her without a fight from my parents. Even when the war was over, they didn't try to find her. So I told them to go to hell and came here to help out where I can."  
  
Leo said the only thing he could think of as a reply. "I'm sorry to hear that, you have my condolences."  
  
She opened her mouth to reply, but Leo never heard it.  
  
The explosion and the immediate gunfire saw to that.


	2. Chapter 2

The bomb blast came first. It blew a hole in the perimeter fence of the telepath camp and sent out a shockwave that blew down every tent within six hundred meters. The same blast wave blew through human beings on both sides of the fence with the same destructive effect.  
  
The attackers emerged from the shell of a bank, as its vault was still intact. There were at least twenty, maybe thirty of them, wearing red and white bandanas that covered their faces and carrying automatic rifles. One of their leaders made their intent clear. "Kill all of the psifreaks before they recover!"  
  
They moved with the discipline of former soldiers and trained fighters, heading toward the billowing dust clouds left by the bomb. Upon arrival inside of the blown fence their guns came up and they started gunning down anyone who seemed to be moving. Several of them threw more devices, small explosives that kicked up more debris and dust. Fog grenades went next.  
  
Despite this visual obstruction Richmond observed them through her tactical visor, which formed over her face much like an omnitool interface from the projectors on her temples. A grim expression came over her face as she brought her pulse rifle up. "Lindstrom, Matali, left flank," she ordered. "Use image enhancement, they're trying to keep cover inside of fog."  
  
Beside her, a number of armed telepaths were already bringing out their own rifles, although these were chem-propellant projectile firearms like the attackers' weapons. Their leader, a man named Lawton, had a scraggly beard and a glare in his eyes that was, for the moment, understandably vicious. "We'll go on their right. The banals think their fog grenades will block our line of sight, but my people are ready for this."  
  
"Go ahead and be careful. Above all, I don't want them getting away." The sentiment was shared, and for similar reasons. A firm statement about the result of such a direct attack should provide a suitable deterrent to further efforts.  
  
Richmond watched her teams move in and start engaging the gunmen. She tapped at her omnitool's comm system. "Richmond to _Aurora_ , I want the immediate response team deployed. I'm relaying their arrival point now."  
  
" _Confirmed, Commander. Sending them in_."  
  
Richmond moved forward with Lawton. By the time she took her first shot Lindstrom and Matali's squads were already laying down fire on their opponents, drawing return fire that dissipated against personal forcefields. This was to the benefit of the telepath militia, who lacked the protective gear of the _Aurora_ security teams. They took some return fire sporadically, and at the ranges involved this ensured some were hit.  
  
But not many. They kept advancing, a few firing regularly to draw attention while the others went to work using their mental powers. They simply stared intently at their attackers.  
  
Chaos spread through the enemy ranks. Some of them turned their guns on themselves or their comrades. Others simply threw down their weapons.  
  
The Psi Corps woman, Kusko Al, came up beside Richmond, a PPG pistol firmly in hand. Richmond openly welcomed the woman to coordinate mentally with her. Kusko seemed momentarily confused by the idea before she followed up on it. A thought not Richmond's own came to her mind. _I can't see them through the fog_.  
  
 _I can_. Richmond tapped at her visor.  
  
She felt something behind her eyes, seeing what she saw, and more of the attacking insurgents started simply dropping in place. Kusko wielded her power with brutal efficiency, shutting down motor neurons and paralyzing the insurgents one by one.  
  
The check on the attackers prompted the survivors to turn and try to retreat. But Richmond's response team was already at the breach in the fence. Shot after shot stunned the retreating foes, who again found their own weapons were useless against the forcefields employed by the security personnel.  
  
Altogether the attack lasted barely five minutes, at least according to Richmond's timer. "Secure captives!" she ordered, and her people went to work, using zip-ties to secure wounded and downed insurgents.  
  
She turned to Kusko and nodded. "Well done. That helped put this rampage down before it hurt anyone else."  
  
Kusko was silent for an extra second before finding the wording she wanted to use. "Thank you for your flexibility. Most people don't want …” She mentally switched a word, “telepaths in their minds."  
  
"I admit I wouldn't want it all the time, but there's no denying how useful it is."  
  
"Commander!"  
  
Richmond turned away. Leo was running up, a medical kit in hand. "If you've secured the area, I'll get to work," he said.  
  
"We're secure," she answered. "Good luck, Doctor. I don't think you'll be finding a lot of survivors."  
  
Their eyes went to the carnage from the blast, including the devastated and maimed bodies. "Probably not," Leo sighed.  
  
Then, with a deep breath, he went to work.  
  
  
  
  
The day's second meeting with the Earth government was going more smoothly, Meridina thought. Security Minister Marias was not present this time, nor were the President and Premier, and the diplomatic minister, Gupta, was taking charge in laying the agenda for her side.  
  
With the war having ended less than a year before, the planet still bore the wounds of the terrible conflict. The presented data on the rebuilding efforts indicated up to a decade would be necessary to provide even a basic level of civil services and economic connection to the entire planet on par with what was known in the pre-war years. The death toll amounted to over a billion.  
  
At Crawford's behest Henjasaram explained the sort of aid effort the Alliance could maintain at the moment. It wouldn't fix the planet overnight, but the materials, and the technologies granted, would hasten reconstruction.  
  
"It is more economical, and feasible, to promote your world's own economic healing than to simply ship in materials," Henjasaram explained to Gupta and the other ministers. "That has been our experience with prior aid and rebuilding efforts. While humanitarian supplies will be provided as normal, our aid efforts will focus on helping you re-establish civic industries and the production of your own supplies for the purpose of reconstruction."  
  
Meridina noted that Kaveri's omnitool blinked once. A priority message was being sent to her. A moment later Meridina's activated in the same fashion.  
  
Before they had a chance to do anything about it, an aide entered the room and went up to Defense Minister Kanegawa. The Japanese man's expression became a frustrated frown at the words whispered into his ear.  
  
"Minister?" asked Gupta.  
  
"I'm afraid I must leave for the moment," he said. "There's been an incident in one of the occupation zones and the military commanders wish to brief me on the matter." He said no more before departing.  
  
"An 'incident'?" Crawford looked to Gupta. "This happen often?"  
  
"More than we'd like," she admitted. "The interlopers eliminated the leadership and military strength of the Dissolutionist nations, but some of the rank and file remain devoted despite the odds. They receive protection from sympathetic civilians in many areas and frequently attack government forces or telepaths."  
  
"Ah. Well, we won't butt in on that, but if you want a helping hand I'm sure we can pitch in," Crawford answered.  
  
"Your aid will be more than enough help, I think. By all means, please continue describing your plans."  
  
During the discussion Kaveri lowered her left arm below the table and brought up her omintool's display. Meridina sensed concern in her being and sent a telepathic query. _Has something happened?_ She noted Bei'tir, as always, was monitoring Kaveri's mind for such a communication, but the two were at a general understanding on the matter by this point and there was no concern in the Dilgar's mind.  
  
 _A bombing and attack at the Atlanta telepath camp Doctor Gillam is aiding_. _Our security forces were involved in the fighting_.  
  
Meridina nodded, recognizing the reasons for her concern. Not just the danger to members of the crew, but the complications their involvement could cause in the careful diplomacy here. _Were any of ours hurt?  
  
No_.  
  
That, at least, was a relief, but it made it clear just how difficult this world's situation was proving.  
  
  
  
  
With the area considered secure Leo called down additional help from the _Aurora_. Dr. Walker, a Tohono O'odham woman, the Alakin Dr. Hreept, and Dr. Roliri Opani - a Dorei - led a contingent of the _Aurora_ 's nurses to take charge of the immediate surgeries in a surgical tent beamed in directly from the _Aurora_.  
  
As one of the first doctors on the scene, Leo was left with the harshest job of them all: triage.  
  
The victim had been on the outside of the fence, one of the nearby residents caught in the blast. He was no older than thirteen, African-American, with frizzy hair and a lanky, lean form.  
  
He was also missing both of his legs and was covered in blood from a plethora of wounds caused by blast shrapnel and debris. His dark eyes stared into Leo's face with no sign of thought within them.  
  
The tears flowed from Leo's eyes at the child, especially at what his medical scans told him. His skull was nearly crushed and his brain was a mess of traumatized tissue and hemorrhages. Even the latest techniques being circulated in the fleet, many of them added to the database by Surgeon-Commander Nah'dur of the _Huáscar_ , would not save the child. The brain damage was too extensive.  
  
Still, Leo felt like his heart would rip in half as he tapped at his omnitool display, causing the micro-fabricators to create a black-colored tag. Leo gently laid it on the boy and murmured, "I'm sorry." Just in case there was enough cerebral activity left to feel pain, he added a massive dose of morphine that would completely numb any surviving pain sensation.  
  
"There isn’t. He’s _gone_. I wouldn’t waste the morphine in a war zone… not that it matters with replicators, I suppose."  
  
The voice prompted him to look over toward Doctor Spencer whose voice sounded like she was speaking from experience in that regard. She was casually providing a black tag for the battered remains of an adult, this one with the remains of a vehicle fender sticking from the side of the skull. When she looked to him again she was slapping a red tag on another patient - a middle-aged Asian woman in a C-collar - without missing a beat she said, "Saving the body wouldn't have accomplished anything but given false hope to his family."  
  
"I know," he answered, but then he did inject the morphine. "I just… I hate children dying in my care. It makes me feel like a failure." The image of Joshua Marik in his OR came back, as it always did at these times.  
  
"Been there…” she projected an image into his mind. a small shattered girl with catastrophic burns and a half-melted badge in a field operating theater. “My residency was during the Earth-Minbari War, so believe me when I tell you, you’re not a failure. The only failures here are the wastes of oxygen who perpetrated it."  
  
Their conversation was gradually drowned out by the sounds of shouting. Leo stood and turned toward the perimeter of the bomb blast area. The _Aurora_ security teams were watching that perimeter in lieu of anyone more capable at the time. Dr. Spencer glanced that direction, and rolled her eyes in utter contempt.  
  
“Not this again…” she muttered, despite not being able to see what was going on from her position, and went back to assessing another grievously wounded person.  
  
Leo however, could see it. Richmond and three of her people were confronted by a growing crowd. The forward figures in said crowd were shouting something. The situation was getting ugly so he rushed to deal with it. "What's the issue?" he called out as he entered earshot.  
  
The closest members of the crowd were the kind he expected. Mostly male, none into middle-age, and looking very angry. One of them, a bearded Caucasian man, stuck an accusing finger at him. "We've got family in there! Actual people, but you're treating the fake ones!"  
  
Richmond flashed a worried glance at him. She didn't speak, but he could tell that she wanted him to keep his distance in case this got violent.  
  
But Leo wouldn't leave it at that. If the mob got violent, it would interfere with their efforts to save people. It was with that in mind that he gathered his courage and strength and replied, in a loud and firm voice, "We are engaging in triage of the wounded. Our technology allows us to save a lot of people that would die otherwise, but the sad fact is we can't save everyone, so we have to sort the cases by chance for recovery. That is our only criteria! So please, step away and let us keep working on this."  
  
For a moment it looked like the gathering crowd - now even larger - would accept his explanation. But the bearded man didn't back down. He stepped forward, almost up to Leo's face, and brought a finger up as if to poke Leo's chin with it. "How about you let us help, huh?" His expression turned vicious, and he sneered, "We'll kill all of the psifreaks so you can do your jobs and save _real_ people!"  
  
Others in the crowd shouted their support for the idea, which looked to be emboldening the man even more. He took the extra step and was in Leo's face directly. Leo recognized the vicious, blind hate in the man's expression, as if it were exploding out of every pore with the sweat pouring down his face.  
  
Richmond's jaw clenched. "Doctor…"  
  
Leo didn't flinch. "I'm not letting anyone kill anybody. There's been enough death today. Stand back and let us get back to saving who we can."  
  
The man roared a reply. "You're saving the Goddamned psifreaks instead of real people!"  
  
Leo knew better than to argue with that kind of sentiment. Not when there was a mob to fuel it. He turned away from the man and faced Richmond. "Commander Richmond, if anyone interferes with our triage efforts, please stun them. I need to get back to work."  
  
Richmond nodded. He thought he saw the hint of a smile on her face as he stepped past her. "All teams, we're facing a riot situation. Weapons on stun, keep personal forcefields to maximum."  
  
The man that Leo turned his back on chose to defy her. He lunged, as if to tackle Leo. Richmond stepped into his path and let him slam into her personal forcefield. It flickered blue and held, throwing him back.  
  
One of his friends came up, brandishing a crowbar. Richmond remained passive as the weapon swung in mid-air just to be stopped by the same field. He tried several more swings to no effect before backing away, frustrated and, more importantly, intimidated.  
  
Behind the two hotheads and their allies, the crowd started to split up. They'd gotten the message: they had nothing that could hurt Richmond's security people. There was no point to lingering.  
  
"They're dispersing," Richmond said into the comms. "Everyone, back to—"  
  
She was interrupted by the low whine of battery engines. She looked up and noticed a host of aircraft, drones from the size of them, swooping in from the east. They were the size of toys, none reaching a meter in length.  
  
The crowd's reaction was not what she expected. Screaming broke out and everyone seemed to start running.  
  
By now Leo's attention was drawn back by the sound. He watched the aerial craft, drones he figured, swoop in. They dropped canisters like an old World War II dive-bomber dropping their bombs.  
  
Thick, gray gas erupted from the dropped canisters. People in the crowd started choking, many clawing at their clothes to cover their faces. Leo used his omnitool to take a quick scan of the gas, confirming it was a form of tear gas.  
  
In their rush to get away, the crowd ran into a new barrier, as multiple armored, wheeled vehicles rumbled up. Soldiers in digital camo and carrying rifles and batons dismounted the vehicles and rushed forward. More cries came as they laid into the crowd, using their weapons to beat people until they hit the ground, upon which they were zip-tied by the soldiers in the following waves.  
  
Concerned with the possibilities, Leo rushed back to Richmond's side. "I suggest you stand back for this, Doctor," Richmond said. "It's their affair."  
  
At a particularly loud scream from the attack, Leo said, "They were dispersing. What are they trying to prove here?"  
  
"Presumably, they are reminding the people here of precisely whom is in charge," Richmond remarked.  
  
The crowd was in complete disarray, with people trying desperately to get around or through the soldiers, but there was no escaping the ring of shield-carrying riot troops. Said ring was only incomplete due to the presence of the _Aurora_ 's security staff watching the bomb blast zone.  
  
Some in the crowd noticed this. They fell back toward Leo and Richmond. One in their number, a woman with a mocha complexion, had tears streaming from her reddened eyes. "Please help us!" she cried. "Let us in!"  
  
"Just minutes ago you were threatening to march in here and begin murdering survivors," Richmond pointed out. "Now you're begging for help?"  
  
A man stepped up beside her, a teenage child beside him. "Please, they'll throw us into camps and never let us go home! That's what they do to anyone they arrest!"  
  
Richmond glanced toward Leo, who met her eyes. "It's not our place," she said. "This is the telepaths' camp. It's their rules, not ours."  
  
Beyond the little crowd of pleaders, the military personnel nearly had the rest of the crowd subdued. Within less than a minute they would be done, and there'd be no more time to make the decision.  
  
Leo keyed his omnitool to connect to the comm device Nysha Williams had. She answered immediately. "We've got people begging to be allowed into your zone," he said. "They're trying to get away from the military."  
  
" _I'm no fan of the Unies, Doctor, but I know damn well what these people are like and why that mob formed. Give me a reason to give them sanctuary._ "  
  
It was a good point. Leo swallowed and said the first thing that came to mind. "Because we're better than this."  
  
A sigh came from the other end. " _They'll have to stay at the edge of the camp, and if the Unies threaten violence we won't defend them._ "  
  
"Understood. And thank you."  
  
" _Thank me later, Doctor, if this doesn't blow up in our faces._ "  
  
The conversation was overheard by the group. Richmond sighed and nodded, gesturing to them while keying her omnitool. "Security teams, we've got seven people entering our zone. Keep an eye on them at all times until I order otherwise."  
  
The group gleefully rushed past at Richmond's permission. Just a hundred meters away a group of armed soldiers were coming that way. Richmond leveled a little glare at Leo. "You've vastly exceeded our orders, Doctor, and it's entirely possible I'll be ordered to hand those people over."  
  
"I know, and this is on me," he answered. "And if you get that order, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there." With that said he turned. "Now I've got lives to save."  
  
"Somehow I think my job will still be harder," she said as he stepped away. She turned her attention to the soldiers and the officer in their number. From the looks on their faces, it was clear demands were about to be made.  
  
  
  
  
Meridina sensed the impending interruption a moment before it came. The door to the conference room flew open and Kanegawa entered, stone-faced, with a red-faced Marias behind him. "Mister Secretary, guests, we have an issue to discuss," he said somberly. Marias flashed an angry glare his way for what Meridina sensed was his disapproval at the Defense Minister's choice of words.  
  
"What has happened, Kanegawa?" Gupta asked.  
  
Marias spoke up immediately. "We would like to know why Alliance naval security is _protecting terrorists!_ "  
  
The force of the accusation was as unsettling as the charge itself was confusing. "Now just what do you mean by that, Minister Marias?" Crawford asked. "Because that's a mighty big charge."  
  
"And it is true. Observe."  
  
Marias brought out a digital tablet and tapped it a few times before swiping along it toward the table. This action sent a video file into the holotank of the table which came to life. The assembled watched as Leo and Richmond allowed seven people past them. Troops, including the one wearing the camera that recorded the video, approached Richmond. " _We're taking those people into custody, stand aside._ "  
  
" _For the moment, no_ ," Richmond answered. " _They have asked for asylum and Doctor Gillam granted it_."  
  
" _In the name of the United Earth, we demand…_ "  
  
Crawford and the others started looking toward Meridina and Kaveri. "Captain, this Doctor Gillam fellow is one of yours, right?" Crawford asked.  
  
"He is. With your permission?"  
  
"Of course." Gupta nodded, her face frozen into an uncertain frown while Marias seemed halfway between actual rage and vicious vindication.  
  
Kaveri brought her left arm up and activated her omnitool. "Captain Varma to Commander Richmond," she said to it.  
  
A few moments later Richmond's voice filled the room. " _Richmond here, Captain._ "  
  
"We have been informed you are preventing United Earth personnel from taking suspected terrorists into custody."  
  
" _Doctor Gillam did win permission to grant temporary asylum in the camp to a group of unarmed people fleeing the military's attack on a local crowd_ ," Richmond replied. " _They believed the United Earth military would take them from their homes if captured._ "  
  
"Commander, are these people terrorists? Did they have something to do with that bomb?" Crawford asked.  
  
" _At first glance, no. They were simply part of a crowd of locals observing our triage efforts. The crowd did nearly become violent, but the ringleaders backed down when they realized they had nothing to defeat our protection_. _They were dispersing peacefully when the local military showed up and started subduing them_."  
  
"Subduing them, Commander?" Kaveri shared a certain, somewhat resigned look with Meridina. "In what way?"  
  
" _A baton or rifle butt to the cheek or head seems the normal method around here_ , _in lieu of stun weapons_ ," came the droll reply.  
  
Crawford and his people looked to Kanegawa and Marias with a clear frostiness in their demeanor. Their peers at the table were clearly uncomfortable, particularly Gupta and the Finance Minister, a German man named Fluck _._ Marias returned the frosty looks with a defiant glare. "We are within our rights to confine suspected Dissolutionists," he declared.  
  
"Sounds to me like you're more interested in puttin' your boot on peoples' faces, sir," Crawford said coldly.  
  
"I'm sure the Premier and President would appreciate being informed of these issues," Gupta said in a sharp tone. "Thank you for informing us of the issue, Minister Marias." Her tone made clear that she wanted him out.  
  
His reply was a disgusted look before he turned and departed.  
  
Gupta sighed and turned her head back to Crawford and the others. "Now that we've settled this issue, shall we return to the business at hand?"  
  
Henjasaram folded his hands on the table. "Do your soldiers routinely attack unarmed civilians? And do you take them from their homes?"  
  
Gupta shared an uncomfortable look with Fluck. "There is a proposed policy, and only proposed, to relocate potentially violent Dissolutionists to new homes in loyalist territory where their incitements will go unheeded," she admitted. "The Executive Council has not approved the policy as promoted by the Security Ministry."  
  
"Well now, that's reassurin' to hear," Crawford remarked. "We want to be good neighbors, Minister, and that's the kind of matter that'll be hard to ignore."  
  
The response was an embarrassed silence that lasted until Crawford, turning his charm on again, proposed they take a recess. Gupta gladly concurred.  
  
  
  
  
Doctor Gertrude Schneider's office was in the Colony's central medical complex. The building was already repaired from the SS attack and Julia had little issue finding her way to the office in question. She was in a professional suit, a navy blue blouse with a black business jacket and calf-length trousers with comfortable short-heeled business shoes. The ensemble was carefully picked since a uniform might make her seem obsessed or in denial, and she didn't want any issues with the doctor. As an addition she wore her mother's old silver band necklace, a simple adornment and the only piece of jewelry she regularly owned.  
  
Dr. Schneider herself was a silver-haired woman with a few wrinkles on her face. She looked like she still indulged in some athletic activity, showing an energy and youth that belied her visible age. "Ma'am." Her voice had a slight, soft German accent. Her hand extended to a reclining chair. "Whenever you're ready."  
  
Julia eased into the chair. "I wouldn't want to take any more of your time, Doctor, I know you've got other patients."  
  
"No more today, however. You're my last appointment." Scheider smiled gently while her fingers hovered over a digital pad, occasionally tapping at it as if typing. "You were seeing your ship's contracted civilian psychiatrist before you left, yes?"  
  
"Doctor Tusana, yes."  
  
"And then you spent nearly three weeks on this newly discovered world in, which universe was it...?"  
  
"N1C4." Julia recalled that while the universe was now common knowledge, some of the facts behind its discovery were still either classified or not widely known. "I was a guest of one of the planet's rulers."  
  
"Really? We'd just made contact, you must have made an impression."  
  
"I suppose I did. His grandniece and I were, well, fellow prisoners."  
  
"Ah." Schneider nodded. "So you bonded."  
  
"We did. Then we got free and we helped beat the SS and got rescued in the end. Her mom nearly died."  
  
The doctor took more notes. "I've read the medical record. A device was used on you by the SS commander, a machine that pulled memories to project on a holoviewer of sorts?"  
  
"Yeah. The chair." Her face twisted into a grimace as she remembered the horrible drilling pain in her mind. "That damned chair."  
  
"You were also beaten, healed, subjected to immersion-based electro-shock, and had Eubian torture nanobots applied to your skin." Schneider went down the list. Julia pursed her lips at hearing the ways she'd suffered expressed so clinically, but she said nothing. She didn't need to, given Schneider lowered her eyes briefly. "Miss Andreys, you are not my first prisoner of war. And, regrettably, you're not my first torture victim. But you are the first I've seen to be this functional so soon after your ordeal. I find it inspirational, but also concerning."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"As much as we sometimes try to claim we can do anything, Human beings have limits, and terrible things happen when we're pushed beyond them. And that is what torture does to the human mind, Miss Andreys. Pain is the way our bodies tell our minds that something is wrong. It tells us that damage is being inflicted and we must protect ourselves. Torture prevents this mechanism from functioning. The mind breaks under the pressure of being unable to stop the perceived damage."  
  
Julia nodded at that. "I can testify to that," she admitted.  
  
"And yet you seem like you are here to have a standard examination," Schneider remarked. "You're dressed like a woman going to work, and you walk like someone in control of their life. We both know you're not."  
  
While the doctor's tone never lost its reasonableness, her words put Julia on edge. What was Schneider angling at with this talk? What was the point of it?  
  
"Your medical leave is up in a couple of weeks, provided no further physiological limitation is determined," Schneider noted. "But for the moment, your future is not determined. It'll be decided here, partially by me and partially by the Stellar Navy's senior officers. We can decide you're fit for command, or that you're not."  
  
"Yeah, true," Julia said. _Why rub it in_?  
  
Schneider eyed her carefully. "Tell me, Miss Andreys, have you considered your future should I determine you're not mentally fit for command anymore?"  
  
Julia forced her facial muscles to freeze, but she could tell her eyes made clear how much that thought angered her. "I admit I haven't," she said. "I feel that, my ordeal aside, I'm fit to command, and I intend to prove it."  
  
"That's not your place, however," Schneider said. "And if you feel this way, why not show it to the world? Nothing in the regulations bans you from wearing your uniform, yet here you are dressed as a civilian. As if you've already prepared yourself for that life?"  
  
Whatever comfort Julia'd felt upon entering was slipping away. _This feels like an interrogation more than an interview_ , she thought. Knowing she needed to give an answer, Julia decided for careful truth. "Listen, I know how it'd look if I did that. It might come off as obsessive, or being in denial about what's happened. Like everything's already back to normal. So I decided to come like this."  
  
"In other words, you tailored your appearance as if this were a negotiation," Schneider observed. "You thought ahead to how I might react to you in uniform, decided it was a risk you didn't want to take, and acted accordingly."  
  
"Pretty much, I suppose."  
  
Schneider tapped away at her pad. "So, to return to my question, you clearly haven't considered that you won't be returned to command duty. I would go so far as to say you're afraid of that possibility, such that you'd rather avoid the thought of it."  
  
"I'm not thrilled by the idea, no."  
  
"Well, please, indulge an old woman." Schneider moved the pad away, looked Julia in the eye, and asked, "Say that I tell your commanders you're not mentally fit for command right now. That I recommend you be reassigned to a non-command position. Whatever your first thought was to that, please, tell me?"  
  
The question came as a brief curl formed on Julia's lips, nearly turning them into a snarl. It went away as Julia searched and searched and found she didn't have such an answer.  
  
"Miss Andreys? What would be your first choice?"  
  
With Schneider looking at her expectantly, Julia finally shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "I don't have a first choice. I simply haven't thought of it."  
  
"I see." Schneider considered her carefully for a moment. "Have you considered that maybe you've put too much of yourself into this occupation, Miss Andreys?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"You define yourself as the Captain of a ship very strongly, that is clear. But that might not be the best for your mental health. Nor is it the best for the service or your ship and crew. It could be a sign that you've suborned your entire identity to this work, to an unhealthy and even obsessive degree. That would have an impact on your performance as Captain, it may even mean you're no longer capable of the judgements necessary. Certainly you would be prone to making decisions based not on the needs of your mission or your ship, but your emotional need for commanding a ship."  
  
"That's not what it is," Julia insisted. "I simply didn't consider the idea because it doesn't make sense. Whatever else has happened, it didn't change who I am and what I am. I'm as fit to command now as I was before."  
  
"Unless you were never truly fit for command."  
  
There was real heat, and challenge, in Julia's voice when she made her reply. "My record proves otherwise."  
  
"Ordinarily I'd agree, and it is quite impressive. But that doesn't change what happened to you, Miss Andreys. You were captured by the enemy. You were abused. Tortured. Your mind was subjected to an attack from alien technology we don't understand."  
  
"That doesn't change who I am," Julia insisted.  
  
"That kind of remark is precisely my concern, because such an experience would change _anyone_ ," Schneider replied. "You don't suffer like that and not change. Insisting otherwise seems like denial."  
  
Julia sighed with exasperation. "I have more nightmares now, that's it," she said.  
  
"Ah, nightmares? About your ordeal?"  
  
"Yes." Julia felt leaving off a "duh" at the end was a concession worth something.  
  
"I see." Schneider retrieved her pad. "Do you feel comfortable sharing them?"  
  
"Not particularly, they're not pleasant," Julia said.  
  
"Ah. Well, I don't want to discomfort you, so we'll move on."  
  
 _That ship has sailed, lady,_ Julia thought, unkindly.  
  
Schneider's questions at this point went into minor details, about Julia's personal routines primarily. A timer went off to interrupt one of her answers, but she gave it anyway. Once she was doneSchneider tapped at her pad and set it aside. "We are done for today," she said. "My assistant will schedule your next session."  
  
"You're not approving my return to duty, are you?" Julia asked.  
  
"Not today," Schneider said. "We still have more work to do before I can be sure you are fit." Schneider folded her hands together. "And perhaps you should consider honesty about yourself when you return to see me, Miss Andreys."  
  
"Alright." Julia stood. "And for the record, until I'm told otherwise, it's _Captain_ Andreys, not 'Miss'." Without another word she left.  
  
She didn't see the little half-smile that formed on Schneider's face as she typed another little note onto her pad.  
  
  
  
  
The time on his omnitool told Leo that the sun had already set outside, but his focus was on the patient before him. He went back to work removing the shrapnel from the internals of a male telepath his age. His hands carefully operated the controls of the surgical transporter, the holographic control display allowing him precise control over the system. As each piece came out, Doctor Amita Singh used the tissue regenerator to restore the opened tissue, minimizing internal bleeding in the process.  
  
It was long, exhaustive work given the precision needed on such vital organs. Sweat beaded Leo's face and was only kept out of his eyes by the careful application of a sponge held by a nurse, in this case the red-haired nurse Rose Williams. And given it was his third intensive surgery of the day, in a row at that, his exhaustion was becoming evident.  
  
Despite his fatigue, Leo finished in good time and with no visible issues. He pulled away the surgical transporter system while Singh performed the last regeneration. When she was done a scan confirmed the man's survival and condition. "Send him on to the post-op tent," he said. And bring in the next case."  
  
"I will do the next case with Doctor Opani. You will go have dinner and get some rest," Singh insisted. "You are exhausted, Doctor Gillam, and you already had a long and trying day."  
  
Leo gritted his teeth, wanting to argue and knowing he had no argument to oppose her. She was right. As a responsible doctor, he had to acknowledge that. "Alright," he said. "I'll leave this to you."  
  
"Thank you," she answered. "And you'd better get to the camp mess. Hargert sent down a couple of big tubs of sausage stew."  
  
"Sounds heavenly." Leo stepped away as a group of orderlies brought in the next patient. Rose gave him a small smile before heading to Singh's side. He crossed paths with Opani on the way out.  
  
A short walk to the next tent via a connected walkway brought him to the shower and changing tent. Dr. Spencer was pulling on a fresh suit of silver and brown, a brass Psi pin over her heart and well-crafted gloves on her hands. "I see they chased you out," she said. "You look, and feel, like you're about to fall over."  
  
"Of course I do." A weak smile formed on his face. "I'll clean up and get dinner. Hargert sent down sausage stew. It's his signature food and worth the calories."  
  
“Unfortunately manifesting while helping with the slaughter takes all the joy out of meat. My brother and I are vegetarians, even if it is replicated. Beetles are on the menu though.” She replied casually before a gentle smile formed on her face. "I wanted to thank you for your work today. With the triage, and then facing down that mundane mob. You're not the first mundane doctor I've met that treats us like people, but that sets you apart from the others."  
  
"Thank you. I figure it was just the right thing to do, really. Keeping security from having to shoot people is always a good thing."  
  
"Standard procedure in the Corps during mass-casualty events is for Metapol to drop the first rank of rioters and induce a sort of ordered panic in a rolling wave. Crowd dynamics does the rest.”  
  
"I imagine what the telepath militia would've done was much worse, if Richmond hadn't stunned them all first."  
  
“Probably just killed them. I’d have helped, to be honest.”  
  
The sincerity in her voice was impossible to miss. Leo's instinctive reaction was to oppose the idea, that doctors were supposed to heal, but he stopped that reaction as he imagined things from her perspective and the intentions of the mob hotheads to murder people she considered family as well as patients.  
  
“Exactly. Our version of the Oath has caveats, in the same way combat medics carry guns.”  
  
"I understand."  
  
She grinned a bit “I know. Anyway, poor Tom is likely about as tired as we are. I should go track him down and stuff food in his face. He forgets to eat.”  
  
"I'll be joining you soon enough," Leo said as she walked away.  
  
  
  
  
Kaveri, Bei'tir, and Meridina walked into Science Lab 2 and quickly found the lab table where the others were assembled. Cat, Tom, and Jarod were each operating equipment focused on a rifle that looked remarkably like a Darglan-tech pulse rifle, the kind that the Alliance had manufactured in the billions to fight the Reich War. Robert, observing quietly, was the first to react to their approach. "Captain, Commander." He nodded at them. "How are the talks going?"  
  
"Carefully," Kaveri answered. "The incident in Atlanta complicated matters on both ends."  
  
"The Security Minister is inherently hostile to us, he sees us as a threat to his government," Meridina explained. "He was not pleased with Doctor Gillam."  
  
"I heard what Leo did. It sounds like him, certainly." Robert smiled thinly. "And knowing him he's about to keel over from exhaustion after working all day on the victims."  
  
"It might cause us mischief to be seen as shielding possible insurgents against their government." Kaveri looked past him to where the others were working. "Secretary Crawford asked me for an update."  
  
"Well, it's definitely Darglan," Cat said. "But it's not ours."  
  
"How can you tell?"  
  
"The elements that compose the weapon are different, for one," she explained. "And we don't use naqia in our weapons like this."  
  
Bei'tir asked the next question, clearly for confirmation more than anything else. "Alliance weapons use other power methods, yes?"  
  
"Yeah," Tom answered. "We typically use ion-lithium batteries for basic functions, with the charge clips that power the weapon employing ion-trinium composite batteries. Most field chargers don't have naqia either. But this thing does."  
  
"It might be Hawk's," Robert suggested. "A lot of his Darglan tech is more advanced than the stuff we got, at least in terms of military applications."  
  
"I checked the profiles on the rifles we confiscated from his cache on Earth C1P2." Jarod tapped a key and projected holographic readings side by side on the table's holo-viewer. The three command officers looked over the findings. "There are definite similarities, but they're not the same. Again, different elemental construction, and these rifles have a higher power efficiency rating."  
  
"So they are even more advanced..." Kaveri said. "Someone has refined the technology further."  
  
"Hawk must have people who work with the technology, otherwise his forces wouldn't be as potent as they are," Meridina noted. "Perhaps they've done so?"  
  
"Possible, but unlikely," Tom said. "I mean, we're not talking a few refinements from tinkering here. It's not something we could've done in our Facility either, not by ourselves. These are evolutionary improvements at the design level. Someone had the design and improved it from experience and experimentation."  
  
"Your implication is that this was the work of a deliberate research effort," Kaveri said. "As in a government organization, or a corporate R&D lab?"  
  
Jarod nodded. "That sounds about right."  
  
"Which would imply that someone in the Alliance may still be responsible," Meridina noted. "Using both your original examples and the confiscated material from Hawk to create these weapons."  
  
"But what would the point be?" Cat asked. "I mean, if the Alliance was doing this, why are we here with aid? One undermines the other."  
  
"Governments do not always work in unison." Kaveri frowned. "This could hypothetically be someone in our military or intelligence service pursuing another agenda. It may even be a defense contractor selling prototypes to arms dealers as a means of unregulated testing and development."  
  
"Either way, I need to report this to Maran." Robert sighed. "If it's someone on our end, they need to be stopped. This world's not stable and they're pushing it back towards war."  
  
  
  
  
After a refreshing shower and change of clothes, from his operating scrubs to his Stellar Navy duty uniform, Leo departed the physicians' tent and traveled the short distance to the big mess hall. It was one of the few intact structures, formerly the dining hall of a technical college, now repurposed to provide daily meals to the camp residents.  
  
It was night time outside now. Portable lights illuminated the walkways between tents and the intact structures, solar cell chargers prominent on their bases, with some of the structures also having lights mounted high on their walls. The relative lack of overhead lights gave the camp a certain feel Leo didn't often see. And the stars were far brighter than he remembered growing up. _Atlanta was a thriving metropolis there, here it's rubble_ , he realized.  
  
At the opening of the hall a young woman met him. She took a quick glance at him and he felt a very slight brush against his mind, one that made his fatigue impossible to miss. A sympathetic look came to her face and she reached into one of three plastic containers, pulling out a green slip of paper. "Use this line," she said. "We sort by priority."  
  
"Right. Thank you." He accepted the slip and entered the hall. As expected there were three lines. One line had children and a pregnant woman, with another woman holding a newborn baby in her arms and a pair of silver-haired elderly behind her, and all had blue slips. Further to the side, the longest line were carrying red slips, adults of varying ages and dress.  
  
Between them was the line with other green slips. He noticed one of the camp's few nurses there and the face of one of the militia he'd seen during the triage work. Leo walked up to the line in a gait he hoped wasn't the equivalent of a zombie.  
  
He didn't say anything, nor even think anything, but that didn't stop the people in the green line from noticing him. One by one they stepped to the side. The invitation was a clear one even without the thoughts being projected into his mind: among themselves they sorted by priority, and surgeons were near the top of the list. Leo knew better than to resist, accepting the gesture and approaching the lunch line. A big steaming bowl of Hargert's signature sausage stew was filled for him. A strawed canister of fruit punch and an apple were added to the tray, as was a cut of lean pork. He took the assembled items to a table.  
  
By the time he was sitting, a few people were looking his way, including Walter Smith from the camp's governing council. He felt good wishes and warm feelings descend on him like a blanket of sentiment, not in an overpowering way but a gentle pressure that proved a balm to his exhausted state. He formed a smile on his face and nodded in appreciation before getting to work on his food.  
  
The dinner was excellent, but given how tired he was, it only added to his desire to get some sleep. Since he was going to make rounds in the early morning, beaming back up to the _Aurora_ felt like a waste of time.  
  
Walter approached. "We've got a place you can rest, Doctor."  
  
"Thank you," Leo said. He followed Walter out, the gratitude of the people still in the mess hall still warming him until he was through the door.  
  
"It's been hard," Walter said as they walked along. "The Unies gathered us here to keep an eye on us as much as to protect us."  
  
"It doesn't look like they were protecting you that well," Leo noted. "Their soldiers would be on your perimeter if they were serious about it."  
  
"Don't I know it." Walter shook his head. "The Dissies shot us, drugged us, or cut us up, the last two in trying to find a way to end telepathy. The Unies aren't much better, they just want us around for our mental abilities. We're tools to them, and possible weapons. Makes me wonder what'll happen if they decide they want us gone too."  
  
Leo understood his fear. It was an easy transition to make. He chose to ask a personal question. "Are you all from around here?"  
  
"Nah. I was born and raised in Tulsa myself," Smith said. "I manifested after the war started and ended up on a train to Andersonville south of here."  
  
"Why Andersonville?"  
  
"It's where the New Confederacy government ran its telepath experimentation center, part of the worldwide Dissie efforts to wipe us out."  
  
Leo found the choice to be diabolically inspired, given the history he associated with that locale. "I see you survived."  
  
"A unit of Pac Fed infiltrators hit the train, got me and a bunch of the others out. Nysha was in charge of the underground cell that helped them. I've worked with her since. After the war, the Unies took every telepath in the North American occupied zones and put them here." Walter shook his head. "Honestly, sometimes I think our whole purpose is to provoke attacks like these so that the Unies can come in and wipe out the insurgents involved."  
  
"You think you're bait."  
  
"Yeah, and I'm tired of it." Walter shook his head. "You know, I always saw myself as North American until after the war. Now it feels like I'm something else, something different. Being a telepath, it's like being part of a nation or a tribe that everyone likes to crap on."  
  
Leo nodded as an answer, as they were now stepping up to a building. Like most of the buildings in the area it was only partially intact, a former hotel or extended stay business. Walter opened one of the intact doors. The inside was dark until Walter held a light up to show the interior. Leo saw that there was a bed and other furnishings. "There's no running water," he said, "but the beds aren't bad."  
  
"I'm glad to hear that." Leo went over to the bed and sat on it. It was a little too firm, but he could sleep on it easily. "Thanks for the place to lay my head."  
  
"You've saved good people, you deserve it," Walter replied.  
  
Walter left him at that point, closing the door as he did. Leo's omnitool lit up the room until he was ready, settling under the sheet and curling the pillows under his head until he was comfortable. He let sleep fill his head to gently carry him away.  
  
A hand grabbed his arm.  
  
Leo's eyes shot open. The light in the room was non-existent, just a little from the outside, creating at least three silhouettes in his vision. Before he could speak he felt more hands take hold of him and force him up. He tried to speak, but he couldn't. _Something_ gripped the muscles of his jaw and tongue, holding his mouth closed, something intangible and unseen.  
  
"You've got him?" a low voice asked.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Let's go."  
  
Leo's leg and hip muscles moved as if on their own accord, bringing him into an awkward standing pose. "He looks unnatural, make it look right!" another voice hissed viciously.  
  
"S-sorry…"  
  
"Quiet, tube baby!"  
  
There was the sound of flesh striking flesh. For a moment Leo felt the force working his muscles slip away. He stumbled forward and tried to raise his voice, but a hand clapped down on his mouth while others took him by the arms. A new voice hissed. "Get control again, dammit, and stay quiet! We need to get out of here now!"  
  
A stab of frustration went through him. He recognized the voice: the woman who'd begged to be allowed into the camp. _No good deed goes unpunished._  
  
The controlling force returned to him, this time with a sense of apology in it. Despite himself and his fatigue he took a step forward, then another, his captors following. One opened the door and they emerged into darkness. The nearby light was out, presumably wrecked for this purpose.  
  
 _Where are they taking me?_ he wondered as he was led further from the building. They were heading toward the blast zone, where the fence was still broken. _I'm being kidnapped!_ he thought in what he thought was a loud fashion, hoping a friendly telepath would hear it.  
  
 _Don't call for help! We need you, we need you more than they do!_ It was words this time, urgent, female. _They'll make me hurt you if you try!  
  
Who are you?_ Leo thought, but there was no answer. Instead his muscles went into operation again, moving him along in the middle of the group. _Where are you taking me?  
  
Stop talking!_  
  
As the command came one of Leo's muscles contracted awkwardly. He felt his balance teeter and he started to fall, just to be caught by one of the men in the group. "Linda, that little psifreak's going to get us caught," he heard a deep voice whisper.  
  
"Keep the song in your heads and shut up," the woman answered, her voice low. "We keep going."  
  
Step by step they moved closer to the fence line. Leo was certain security would be there, but with the darkness around and the guards mostly worried about someone coming in, would they see him? Would they even realize he was being coerced?  
  
He tried to open his mouth, to ask why, but his jaw wouldn't work, nor his vocal cords. They were under outside control and he couldn't force that control away.  
  
 _Run!_ a voice urged in his head.  
  
Suddenly he felt a second force in his head, just as powerful but more directed, more controlled. It flowed through him as if it were a purging element, tearing away the outside control on his motor functions.  
  
He nearly stumbled again as his control came back, but he caught himself. Again the arms came for him, trying to grab him, but his jacket wasn't sealed and the fingers gripped it instead of his actual arm. He twisted free, leaving his uniform jacket behind. He dropped low for a moment before forcing his exhausted body into a dash aided by the adrenaline release he'd been feeling since he'd been attacked.  
  
Behind him screams and shouting began. There was no gunfire, but he heard the definite sound of flesh striking flesh repeat. A distant crack indicated a bone had been broken, as did the following scream of agony, but he kept going until he found the remains of an old utility shed in the gloom. The door was gone, probably blown away by the bomb, and he entered it and hid behind an old shelf. Outside the shouting started to die down while he keyed his omnitool's locator beacon.  
  
"Doctor?!" A woman's voice pierced the shed, followed by a light beam. "Security Officer Elisa Chase, I've got your locator. You can come out now. Are you hurt?"  
  
Leo sighed with relief and emerged from his hiding space. Chase was a lower-ranked Petty Officer in Richmond's security department, a stocky, muscular woman of some height. "I'm not hurt," he assured her. "Just damn tired."  
  
"Doctor Gillam is secured," Chase said, presumably speaking to Richmond and the others. "I have him."  
  
As they emerged from the shed Leo said, "They forced me to go with them. I think they had a telepath with them."  
  
"Commander Richmond'll sort it out, sir."  
  
Richmond was already present. The area around them was lit up from a spotlight aimed their way. Leo tracked it visually to a tower set up by the camp militia. The beam itself was focused on the seven people who'd taken him, the same people he'd convinced Nysha Williams to let in the camp.  
  
All of them were now being secured with tie-straps by Richmond's personnel. Some of the telepath militia were present and watching, many of them looking sternly at the interlopers. A couple even glared Leo's way, as if to scold him for having let these people in.  
  
There was no scolding expression on the face of the one uniformed figure among them. Kusko Al beamed with gratitude and a little bit of satisfaction. Leo approached her and asked the obvious. "It was you, wasn't it?"  
  
"I freed you from the control, yes." Kusko extended a hand, showing it was gripping his lost jacket. "We moved in once you were clear."  
  
"Thank you," he said to her, for both her aid and for returning his jacket.  
  
Once he pulled it on she gestured toward one of the smaller figures among the captives. "The girl's a telepath, a little strong but _very_ untrained."  
  
Leo approached them. The group were glaring his way, and there was no mistaking the frustration and anger there. Even the telepath had a sullen look, which fit her ragged clothing and short, dirtied blond hair. "What's your name?" he asked her.  
  
She pursed her lips and stared at the ground.  
  
"Under ordinary circumstances I'd confine them on the ship," Richmond said, "but this isn't our jurisdiction, and we've already tromped on enough toes with the locals." She turned to a figure that Leo recognized as the bearded Lawton, the man in charge of the telepath militia. "With your permission, sir, I'll have one of our modular runabouts converted into a holding site and flown down."  
  
Lawton nodded. "Go ahead. Just keep them clear from our people."  
  
"Of course." Richmond turned her head toward him. Her cat-like green eyes reflected some of the light striking her, and Leo could tell she was ready to give him an "I told you so". "Doctor, until we know for sure that there are no more security breaches, I'd appreciate it if you returned to the _Aurora_."  
  
"I'd rather stay, we might have further medical emergencies," he replied.  
  
Richmond sighed. "Then I'd like to keep a guard on you at all times, until we verify why you were targeted and that there are no more threats to your safety."  
  
"I'll assign a couple of mine," Lawton said. "It's our camp, after all."  
  
"Of course." Richmond wasn't entirely satisfied by that, but they'd already pressed the camp leaders enough. Her look to Leo made it clear that if she had her way, he'd be beaming right back at this moment.  
  
 _Maybe I should_ , he thought, feeling the exhaustion coming back as his body used up the released adrenaline. _But I might be needed. We've still got some critical cases_. "I'm ready to go back to bed."  
  
Lawton turned to his people. Without a word two of them, an African-American woman and a tan-skinned man, stepped forward, assault rifles still in their arms. "This way, Doctor," the woman said.  
  
Leo fell in, forcing himself to stay walking with much of his waning energy. _What a day..._  
  
  
  
  
Unlike Leo Richmond had no choice on going back to the ship, not given the security situation being so unsettled. She'd have to settle for resting on the runabout _Brahmaputra_ and its bunks.  
  
But her bunk had to wait. The _Aurora_ operations staff's hard work was on display, as they'd turned the modular runabout's rear cargo section into a makeshift brig. There was just enough room to provide each prisoner with a cot and some room to stretch, with forcefield cubes barring them from interacting.  
  
The accommodations only barely met regulations on emergency confinement. She already dreaded filing the seven separate Emergency Confinement Report forms that would have to go across Captain Kaveri's desk.  
  
Under her direction one of the seven, a large man with the kind of face made for the perpetual scowl on it, was escorted into the middle living section of the _Brahmaputra_. Officer Chase and another of her squad, Security Officer Hrelu Sat, brought the cuffed man to a chair and set him down in front of Richmond and Lawton. He glared hatred at them both.  
  
"Please state your name."  
  
The glare didn't stop. His mouth didn't move.  
  
Richmond crossed her arms. "You attempted to kidnap an Alliance Stellar Navy officer. We'd like to know why. Cooperate and maybe we'll let you go."  
  
The mouth twisted into a sneer. "I don't talk to puppets," he said, his deep voice smug. He leveled his eyes at the telepath camp's security chief. "You want to speak, lab rat, use the voice God gave you, not your new toy."  
  
Her curiosity at this remark was answered by Lawton. "He thinks I'm controlling you telepathically." Lawton chuckled. "That's how these banals view the world."  
  
"I've seen what you psifreaks do to people who get in your way," the man growled.  
  
"He's singing a song in his head over and over," Lawton continued. "Some folksy old-time music. It's a placebo, he knows it can't stop me."  
  
"You really like talking to yourself, don't you, tube baby?"  
  
"I get it, another slur." Richmond sighed. "You're the kind of man who gets very aggressive when he's terrified, aren't you?" At seeing the telltale flicker in his intense brown eyes, she nodded and grinned. "Because that's what you are. Terrified. This is the defiant courage of the hopeless, and to be honest, I find it overwrought and melodramatic."  
  
The sneer turned into a snarl. "You going to talk all night through this poor lady you've puppeted, lab rat? Too afraid of a prisoner to speak to me? Or are you just glorying in the moment, you sick sadistic bastard?!"  
  
"I'm more amused by the blind bigotry fueling your terrific ignorance," Lawton retorted. "Commander RIchmond is speaking of her own volition, and her people are here helping us of their own free will."  
  
"Like hell they are. They're run by a bunch of alien psifreaks, we already know that much!" the man raved. "And now her alien master's letting you play with them! You want my name? You want anything? _Why don't you just rip it from my head?!_ _Why don't you just break my mind down like you do to…_ to…"  
  
She could tell something was wrong when the sentence trailed off. The man started to cough violently. Panic flashed through his eyes as the coughing fit continued. When it stopped, his body began to shiver and he keeled over in the chair.  
  
"Get a corpsman, now!" Richmond ordered her people, kneeling down to inspect the man. Spotting something along his neck, she pulled back the collar of his jacket.  
  
Blue lines and sores stood out on his reddened flesh.


	3. Chapter 3

The exhaustion was clear on Leo's face when he appeared on Kaveri's personal monitor in her ready office. She had the model turned so that Robert could see him as well.  
  
" _Almost all of the insurgents have whatever this is_ ," he said. " _The symptoms we know of start as a dry cough. Then auto-immune responses kick in, blood pressure goes up, the veins enlarge and stick through the skin, and the cardiovascular system starts throwing clots. I'm also monitoring a spike in body temperature and increasing decay in neuro-transmitter levels. Neurological symptoms will likely begin soon._ "  
  
"Do you have any indication of what this sickness is?" Kaveri asked. "And how contagious it is?"  
  
" _Scans don't show any sign of an agent in the air, so it's nor airborne. Beyond that we don't know anything yet_." Leo rubbed at his forehead. " _We're relocating the sick to the_ St. Johns _, under security watch, and I've sent samples to Dr. Ke'mani'pala and Dr. Diptheek_. _Between Lab 3 and the iso-lab in medbay, we should be able to identify what this thing is soon._ "  
  
"Very well. And on the other matter, I am reassured to see you are fine given what happened."  
  
" _As fine as I can be._ "  
  
"If you need more security, we could always send Talara or Gina," Robert offered.  
  
Leo shook his head. " _The telepaths have their own security here, and Richmond's teams helping out. That's all we need._ " He looked off-screen. " _I need to go. I'm taking over rounds in the post-op tent for Dr. Hreept._ "  
  
"Keep me informed, Doctor. _Aurora_ out." Kaveri tapped at the control for the screen, ending the call. She turned to Robert. "You seem concerned."  
  
"Well, he's my friend, for one." Robert sighed. "But the fact is, I feel something is going on here."  
  
"The conditions down there are ripe for epidemics, unfortunately. I speak from experience." Kaveri rose.  
  
"Even so, maybe you should take Gina with you, or maybe I could go. Just in case it's something more than Bei'tir can handle." Robert gave a nod of acknowledgement to the Dilgar telepath at her seat in the corner. "You could always play up my role in the Alliance being founded to justify being there. So it shows that we find their situation important."  
  
"Somehow, I think they will be more swayed by your status as an operative of our government," Kaveri noted wryly. "Secretary Crawford asked to keep our presence down to myself, Group Captain Bei'tir, and Commander Meridina. I do not see him changing his mind at this point."  
  
"Probably not," Robert agreed. "I wish I could give you, and him, more to go on than vague unease."  
  
"When you can, let me know." She stood from her chair. "Until then, we must stick to our duties, and right now I am due to attend the new day's sessions in Brussels."  
  
"And I'll go see if Tom and Jarod have found anything new or interesting this morning."  
  
  
  
  
Given the other prisoners were now under both medical and security observation, the one remaining captive on the _Brahmaputra_ was the telepath. Lawton was off resting so Richmond had the Psi Corps security telepath, Kusko Al, with her for the interview.  
  
By now she figured Kusko wasn't the standard Corps telepath. The way she acted, the way walked around people, she carried herself differently. She'd also been amazingly prescient in intercepting the insurgents before they could make off with Doctor Gillam, a timing that Richmond couldn't accept as mere coincidence.  
  
Their prisoner was young. Richmond suspected she was no older than sixteen, maybe as young as fourteen, although the sullen expression and dull stubborn anger in her eyes was definitely that of a teenager. "So, what was your name?" she asked. "Surely you can give us a name to call you?"  
  
Nothing.  
  
Richmond nodded to Kusko. _I'm Kusko Al, a Newtype/telepath like you_.  
  
The girl's face lit up with fury. "I don't want anything to do with psifreaks! Get out of my head!"  
  
It was clear Kusko hadn't expected such a virulent reaction. Richmond crossed her arms and spoke with a clear sardonic tone. "A strange opinion, young lady, since you're a telepath as well."  
  
The emotional resonance the word gave the girl was obvious to RIchmond, but it was Kusko who felt the sheer self-loathing from her. This girl hated who she was. She hated herself and those like her, a hate reinforced by the people she'd associated with. The verbal and even physical abuse she'd endured briefly surfaced in her mind before she forced it away, softly singing a pop tune in her mind.  
  
"Why did you try to kidnap Doctor Gillam?" Richmond asked. "Or was he a target of opportunity?"  
  
The telepath crossed her arms and looked away. Given her situation it was striking that she still managed to pull off the "sullen teen" look so well.  
  
"Young lady, your options are not very good at the moment," Richmond remarked. "Whatever your relations with the others, that's over with now. They'll be turned over to the United Earth authorities as soon as their medical condition is dealt with. Given the situation I imagine they'll be spending a very, very long time in a prison of some sort, and it will not be pleasant."  
  
"Why are you working with the Unies?!" the girl demanded. "All we want is to be left alone! To live our own lives without having Unie psi-hunters going through our minds to punish us if we don't like the Union! That's the only reason they even allow psifreaks to live, they're just weapons to the Unies, weapons and spies!"  
  
“From what the people in this camp have told me,” Kusko replied, “the Dissies turn telepaths into suicide troops. You use the term ‘our’, as if they would have ever allow you to live a life. If you hate the Unies so much, why not join up with the Pac Fed forces? Why assist in your own destruction?”  
  
The girl looked away. Richmond could see they wouldn't be getting any cooperation soon. "You're not going to accomplish anything, young lady, by refusing to cooperate. This doesn't impair us in the slightest. All it does is ensure you get into greater trouble."  
  
Kusko decided on a strategy right then and there. “Don’t patronize her. She knows full well what awaits her in a Unie prison, and there’s very little chance they’ll honor any deal a foreign government makes.”  
  
<That strategy won’t work with her, she’s not a common criminal but a brainwashed terrorist. You have to deconstruct her belief system. Give me some time.>  
  
It made sense. Richmond had the feeling it was something Kusko had personal experience with, to some degree. _You'll want to start fresh, then._ She stood. "Take the prisoner back to her cell, I'm done with her for now." With that said she left the living area for the _Brahmaputra_ cockpit area.  
  
Leo was waiting for her, looking only a little more fresh than he had the prior evening. "Any sign of symptoms yet?" he asked.  
  
"Nothing. The only symptom our young kidnapper shows is that of a sullen teenager that knows she's in deep trouble." Richmond's tone kept its sardonic edge. "It's not unlike stubborn, self-righteous doctors with savior complexes."  
  
Leo chuckled softly. "I guess I earned that. I thought I was helping people."  
  
"And that's what they were counting on. Honestly, I'm starting to suspect yesterday's attack was a cover for what happened last night."  
  
Leo raised an eyebrow. "You think the bombing and invasion were to get those people in?"  
  
"During the chaos, certainly, had we not been there to help they might have masqueraded as wounded inside the perimeter. Their telepath friend would've helped admirably in that respect." Richmond walked over and settled into one of the side chairs, prompting Leo to do the same. "Once the attack failed, they did what they could to generate the mob scene to try again. The local military forces contributed, certainly, and their response could have been easily guessed based on what I've heard."  
  
"And they played me like a fiddle." Leo crossed his arms. "Want to know the funny thing?"  
  
"There is little about this situation I could identify as 'funny', Doctor."  
  
"i know. But it doesn't change the fact that they may have gotten what they wanted in the end. Medical treatment, I mean." Leo looked toward the back of the runabout. "That's why they wanted me. The girl controlling me made it clear I was 'needed'."  
  
"Something tells me the local government will disabuse them of that sentiment in short order."  
  
"Given how this sickness progresses? Maybe not." Leo stood. "Anyway, when you can get them, samples of the girl's blood and a tissue analysis will help us determine if she's infected. I'd do it myself…"  
  
"...but I wouldn't let you," Richmond said for him. "Go back to your duties, Doctor, and I'll get you those samples."  
  
  
  
  
After escorting the nameless young telepath back to her cell, Kusko was beat. Exhausted and at something of a loss. She knew what she needed to do, but didn’t really know how precisely. She needed advice. Which was why she wandered into the tent Tom and Abigail Spencer were occupying. Both of them were still awake somehow and hastily putting their gloves back on when she walked in.  
  
“Jesus, Kusko. It’s a good thing we felt you coming or this could have gotten awkward…” Tom noted. He was doing his charting, while Abigail was reading something on a datapad. Both were easier with the gloves off given the touch screens.  
  
“Sorry.” She replied a bit sheepishly. She had her own set, but that particular cultural quirk — the intense sexualization of hands — was still strange for her, and she suspected it always would be. Or maybe not? Maybe someday she’d slip the gloves off and feel naked?  
  
“It’s alright. You’re new, and I wasn’t kidding about that mind-nudist thing, but we’re not at a German beach or in some kind of bourgeois masquerade orgy so... Tired and rambling. Something is clearly on your mind.”  
  
“It’s this… terrorist girl.” Kusko sighed. “She’s a telepath, and brainwashed so thoroughly she willingly fights for people who want to wipe telepaths out of existence. They abuse her, call her tube baby to her face, and she hates herself so much she just takes it and tries to kidnap doctors.”  
  
“Ah. That. Speaking of which, you did good. Leo is a good person, if a bit naive. I’d hate to see him in enemy hands. You want to try to turn her, don’t you?”  
  
“She has information we need, so yes. But also, what they did to her is just wrong. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since joining the Corps it’s that we aren’t — and should never be — tools to be used.”  
  
“Then start with that.” Tom answered, interjecting in place of his sister. “You have experiences that if you trust her with them, might give you an edge in turning her around.”  
  
It wasn’t a bad idea, Kusko thought, and nodded. “We’ve both been experimented on, I’m certain of that, so it’s an easy place to start, even if the Flanagan Institute was Zeon Pioneers Space Camp in comparison to what they did to her. Worst case, we end up having to break through her defenses. I know I can do that if I have to.”  
  
“Good.” Abigail affirmed “Now come on, hit the sack, I get the feeling that tomorrow is going to be very long. We have the cot set up and everything.” And it was, complete with a memory foam pad. “Hell, the tent is even impregnated with mosquito repellant.”  
  
“The Corps really is Mother and Father, they’re eating me alive.... That sounds like an excellent idea.”  
  
  
  
  
  
The full Executive Council of the Earth National Union - the United Earth's executive government cabinet - was in attendance for the days meetings, including Kanegawa and Marias. Kaveri, Bei'tir, and Meridina again joined Crawford's team and listened as he laid out an early recommendation.  
  
"I know you folks are worried about terrorism, and we'll be glad to help stop it," he said. "Give you time to rebuild. My team and I looked over the reports and have a few recommendations to make, if you'll hear us."  
  
Gupta looked carefully to President Lawrence, who nodded to her. This prompted Gupta to begin speaking. "We recognize that your Alliance's diversity of experiences may give you some ideas we haven't considered."  
  
"Alright then. First off, you folks expressed concerns about some of your member governments making independent contact with us. That it'll undermine your authority. We recognize that and we'll be cautious about it. But you might want to consider inviting their counsel on these matters. Open some dialogue." Meridina felt Crawford was being perhaps a little too familiar, but she recognized that he was trying to be engaging to encourage their comfort. "If anything, it might help you with some of the folks in the former rebel countries. Folks who might settle down if they think you're going to help them out now that the war's over instead of treatin' them like they're still enemies. And then there's the matter of your telepath population—"  
  
Meridina felt the surge of anger before the interruption began. Security Minister Marias slammed a hand on the table. "This is inexcusable!" he proclaimed. "We are the governing body of this planet, responsible for ten billion souls, and you're lecturing us!"  
  
"Minister Marias…"  
  
"Secretary Gupta, you are disgracing the Executive Council by going along with this… this _farce_ ," he declared. "These people _claim_ to be here to help, but their actions speak to their true motives! Their support of Dissolutionists and the telepath underground proves their real motive is our destruction! They wish to conquer us peacefully, and they can only do that if our government is weakened by the Reformist agenda they're parroting to us!"  
  
Marias glared at the entire Alliance delegation. "The lessons of the past century are clear to us. So long as Humanity is divided in leadership, we are doomed to war and suffering. The Union _must_ gain control of the world to stop this. We must make our world a true nation, one people under one flag, to avoid the wars of our past.  
  
“The Reformists are merely the subversive side of Dissolutionism and their way would cause more conflict, not less. And this talk about treating Dissolutionist insurgents as anything but the enemies they are is nothing but an attack on my office and agency! I will not sit here and suffer the efforts to ridicule my brave agents putting down threats to world peace!"  
  
Without seeking permission, he turned from the table and stomped from the room.  
  
"He is not grandstanding, is he?" Kaveri asked in a whisper.  
  
"He is genuine," Meridina whispered back, after a moment to consult with Bei'tir on whom should answer. As she spoke the embarrassment and uncertainty of Marias' peers came to her senses. Kanegawa looked sheepishly at his notes, Fluck rolled his eyes, and Gupta seemed quite flustered. Their leaders were equally perturbed, although Meridina felt a certain sense of quiet understanding from Gorchkov and a few of the other cabinet members. Marias' passion unsettled them, but his arguments resonated with their fears and grief.  
  
Gupta, mortified, was apologetic as she spoke to Crawford. "Please, give us the list of your proposals, and the Executive Council will discuss them," she said. "But understand some of those proposals may not be politically feasible at this time."  
  
"Understood ma'am," Crawford answered politely. "We should probably move on to other business then. You wanted to see some of the treaties that govern interuniversal relations?"  
  
"Yes, that would be useful."  
  
Meridina knew what she really meant was that the change of subject was useful.  
  
  
  
  
  
The day began with Lucy Lucero cursing yet again the concussion that had brought her a month of boring light duties, as well as curses for the bomb, the NEUROM operatives who set it up, and their mothers for bringing them into the world just to vex her personally.  
  
After breakfast she visited the medbay to get her daily check-up out of the way. Over half of the medical personnel were down on the planet, but Dr. Allen-Epstein from the _Koenig_ crew was on hand to go over the scan. "You have recovered well," he noted. "Neurological scans are all clear, and the injury has healed. Honestly you'll be back on duty in a day or two, I imagine."  
  
"Hallelujah." Seeing the way he was grinning at her, she made a very fake wince. "I mean, oh no, I have to go back to work and probably get shot at, I should find a way to extend my medical leave."  
  
"That sarcasm implies you like being shot at."  
  
"Well, I suppose I'm one of the relatively few people in the Multiverse who can block people shooting at me and send the shots back, return to sender," Lucy conceded, now grinning sweetly. The grin faded after a few seconds. "How is everything holding up here? It looks like you're down to a quarter of your staff."  
  
"Oh, it's… well, it's holding up, I suppose," he answered, his German accent not particularly thick. "And we're at half, actually, Doctor Gilliam's arranged for the rotation between normal duty up here and the aid work to keep half of the medical staff here on the ship, off and on duty."  
  
"Doesn't look like it."  
  
"Well, I had to send teams to the brig to get samples from the prisoners from yesterday, there may be an epidemic in the area. It's not surprising, that kind of thing happens in these situations."  
  
"Did you go down there yet?" Lucy asked  
  
He nodded. "I was at a displaced persons camp yesterday in Iran." He shook his head. "It's not the first such place I've seen. I worry that I'm too used to that level of suffering and deprivation."  
  
"I know the feeling," Lucy said, slipping off the table. "I got a little used to it back in the Facility days. Sometimes it can make someone wonder about the world. Then I met Meridina and learned how to draw on a metaphysical power source that gets stronger by making people feel better, so I just roll with it now."  
  
He grinned at that. "I would too. Have a good day."  
  
With her checkup done, Lucy headed to Science Lab 2. Jarod and Tom were at work on the rifle provided by the planetary authorities claiming the Alliance was arming insurgents. She could see why given it was visibly a Darglan pulse rifle. "So, anything else?" she asked. "Robert let me know what's up."  
  
"Nothing new," Jarod replied. "We know it's Darglan, but it's also a newer model than anything we've seen before. The refinements make it obvious this required a significant effort."  
  
"It's definitely not rigged modifications," she agreed, looking at the scan results on the model. "So now the question is finding out where it came from."  
  
"Cat's running a library search on the elements, but nothing is so unique as to stand out yet," Jarod answered. "But I've had a thought."  
  
"Let me guess. The naqia?" Lucy smiled at him.  
  
"You used your woo-woo powers to sense that, didn't you?" he asked.  
  
"You picked that term up from Tom, and no, I didn't need them. It's something clever, so you thought of it already."  
  
"I did." Jarod tapped the display. "The sensitivity of the sensors will have to be turned up, and some calibrations done to ensure we get accurate results. That's what we're working on now, in fact."  
  
"I'll let Rob know. Need any help?"  
  
"We've got it handled," Tom said. "And you've got that ancient code book to work on, right?"  
  
Lucy's sigh was intentionally dramatic. "Gina says she finally got out of the gibberish zone, but I'm getting tired of it all the same. Do you know the pain of dealing with old High Gersallian syntax, cross-referencing it with other work to find errors, and figuring out the part of the error that makes the code? Is it the subject of a sentence because its out of place, or is it the participle? Is it really an error or am I confusing it with normal Gersallian?"  
  
"I find it fun," Jarod said, grinning. "I like codes that make me think."  
  
"After a while, it gets old," she replied. "Want to swap places?"  
  
"I don't think Captain Kaveri will go for that," Tom said. "The bigwigs want this done."  
  
Lucy sighed and crossed her arms. "Alright, I'll go get back to code work. Let me know if you need my help."  
  
"We'll call, don't worry," Jarod answered.  
  
With intentionally-exaggerated resignation, Lucy left the science lab. _We'd better decode that book soon_ , she thought. _I'm going to go stir crazy otherwise_.  
  
  
  
  
  
The lunch hour in New Liberty saw Miko and Julia enjoying the sights. It was, technically, a working lunch, as Julia was running scans to survey the reconstruction of the Market District.  
  
This meant facing the remaining damage from the attack, of course, and she found it a mixed experience. She understood, and mourned, the fact that people died in those broken buildings, slain in an attack that nobody saw coming. To a degree it made her feel like a failure. She'd failed these people by not preventing the attack.  
  
But she knew this was wrong. More than that, even with over five percent of the colony's population killed in the attack and many, many more wounded, the colonists were bouncing back. Like Gersal they were receiving aid from across the Multiverse, aid and volunteers, and they were rebuilding their homes with a spirit that Julia couldn't help but feel warmed by.  
  
When she finished her last inspection she turned to speak to Miko, just to find she'd stepped away. Why she had was soon apparent. A band of musicians had taken up their usual position in the square, and the fusion of Makossa and what sounded like Korean music was attracting a crowd.  
  
The music, and Miko.  
  
The band played merrily despite the impromptu addition to their act, as Miko danced in the street nearby. It wasn't just any dance, but one Julia remembered seeing in the streets of the Fire Nation's royal capital and on the holovid programs she'd seen on their local networks. The traditional dance involved actual Firebending, long and short spurts of flame from Miko's hands and feet in line with her movements and the music. The assembled crowd were cheering the sight, enchanted by her ability and her skill.  
  
Julia was looking into the crowd when she was surprised to see a familiar face approach her. "Liara? Doctor T'Soni?"  
  
The Asari xenoarcheologist nodded at her. She smiled briefly before letting her expression turn to something neutral. "Captain. I'm delighted to see you're alright. I heard what happened and I was horrified to think you were lost."  
  
"It was a close call," Julia answered. "And not easy. But I'm alive and I've even made a new friend." She smiled in Miko's direction as Miko completed a set of dance forms that culminated with her forming a dragon crest from flame.  
  
The crowd cheered approval. She turned and bowed respectfully to the band while the call for an encore rose. Julia didn't hear the exchange Miko shared with the band leader, but it was clear the crowd request was considered acceptable by both. Miko went into a ready stance as the band started replaying the tune from before.  
  
With Miko clearly occupied with another performance, Julia returned her attention to Liara. "Who is she?" Liara asked. "Does she have metaphysical gifts like Lieutenant Lucero and Captain Dale?"  
  
"Something like that," Julia answered. "On her world, people can be born with metaphysical talents to manipulate basic elements. Normally just one, but she's a special case. We were both captives of the SS before the rescue."  
  
"I see. Goddess, she looks very young. A Human maiden by comparison."  
  
"That does sound about right." Julia smiled at Liara. "So, Doctor, what're you doing on New Liberty?"  
  
"I'm waiting to get a response to my application to your Navy's science division," Liara answered. "I followed through on your friends' invitations to become a civilian specialist on one of your ships."  
  
"Wonderful. Whichever ship you wind up on, I hope you do well."  
  
"I admit, I would much prefer coming back to the _Aurora_. I'm familiar with your ship. And most of your crew are still the same, yes?"  
  
"Mostly. Except for my place, right now." Julia wondered how Captain Varma was faring with the others. The communications she'd gotten had mostly been inquiries into her health and how she was doing with very little besides platitudes on their missions. _They want to make sure I recover, I know, but I really wish I could be sure they were fine_.  
  
"You're worried about them?" Liara asked.  
  
"Oh, always." Julia chuckled. 'Didn't they tell you, Doctor? I'm a mother hen."  
  
That brought momentary confusion to Liara. "That's a fowl or an avian, I thought? One of the species your people use for food?"  
  
"It's a metaphor, I'm sorry."  
  
By now the music ended a second time, and Miko gave the last bit of her fire show an even greater flare to even greater applause. There were a few calls for another encore, but the band started putting their things away, the signal they were calling it a day. Miko approached, sweating but very enthusiastic. "That music, it's so different, but it sounded just right with the drums and the pipes. I couldn't help myself." She noticed Liara. "Oh! Hello. I'm sorry, I've never met your species before."  
  
"I'm an Asari, from the M4P2 universe," Liara answered.  
  
"The aliens who are all women?"  
  
"That is a very… simplistic explanation, but yes, we're a monogendered species."  
  
"Princess Miko, this is Doctor Liara T'Soni, a xenoarchaeologist my crew worked with in the past." Julia gestured between them. "Doctor T'Soni, Princess Miko of then Fire Nation, and her world's Avatar."  
  
"Isn't that a Human word for someone's appearance in an extranet setting?" Liara asked.  
  
"For us, but for their world, it has a different meaning."  
  
"Of course. A pleasure to meet you, Princess." Liara bowed her head.  
  
Miko returned the gesture. "Thank you, and I'm so glad to meet you, Doctor. There are so many species I've yet to meet in person, and I'm always happy to meet another of Sifu Julia's friends."  
  
"Sifu?"  
  
"It's a term for teacher," Julia explained. "I'm teaching her my martial arts. It's related to her duties." She checked her omnitool. "Speaking of duties, I have to finish this reconstruction inspection for the Colony Council. Mrs. Soloveitchik is expecting it before dinner."  
  
"We're having dinner with Governor Rankin again tonight?" Miko asked.  
  
"We are, and that's why we need to get finished." Julia nodded to Liara. "I'll see you around, Doctor."  
  
"I hope so," Liara said. She turned away and started walking toward the north exit of the Market Square.  
  
"Now that you've got your jitterbug sorted out, let's get back to work," Julia teased Miko.  
  
"Jitterbug?"  
  
She sighed. "Sorry, another of those cultural things to explain. You see, it means…"  
  
  
  
  
As she walked away Liara kept a careful eye out around her. _At least she's still safe_ , she thought. _For now_.  
  
Once she was alone Liara checked her messages on her omnitool. A new one flashed to life, directly from Feron. His source on Ilum had come through.  
  
The words were not what Liara wanted to hear.  
  
 _Shadow Broker definitely targeting Captain Andreys. Has arranged clean travel IDs into Alliance. Can't confirm identities. Will find out what I can. - Feron_  
  
Liara frowned. _I have to protect her_ , she thought. _This is my fault, and I have to make it right._  
  
  
  
  
  
After the lunchtime rounds Leo went out to the _St. Johns_ to make use of its replicator instead of taking from the camp's own food supplies. It gave him the chance to look up the condition of the six insurgents who tried to kidnap him. The more he saw their symptoms, the more he was wondering just what he was dealing with, and the more impatient he was for Ke'mani'pala and Diptheek to get back to him.  
  
He was partway through a steaming bowl of beef stew and a lunch salad, fresh from the ship's replicator, when one of the security officers stepped in. Rose was beside him. "She wanted to see you, Doctor," he said.  
  
"Hey, Rose." Leo gestured to one of the chairs in the forward section. Go ahead and have a seat.  
  
For her part Rose was looking around the forward cockpit section with widened eyes. "This is a spaceship?"  
  
"A small one," he confirmed, grinning. "The _St. Johns_ is a medical runabout. It carries a surgical theater and bed spaces in the rear modules at the cost of a smaller living space. She's meant to supplement field facilities when the ship's not available."  
  
Rose slipped into a seat. She ran a finger across one of the controls. It blinked red in response, indicating it was locked down. "And you're on a bigger ship, right? I mean, you live on one?"  
  
"I do." Leo took a bite. "Computer, activate main viewer, show a recorded image of the _Aurora_ , front angle."  
  
The holo-viewer built into the cockpit's front window activated, showing an image of the _Aurora_ from the front. She was, as always, an impressive ship to look at, with her long tapered hull shape with gentle lines. The deflector dish was a round golden eye with blue lines running through it that was built into the forward decks of the drive hull. Though the image angle didn't show it, almost precisely above the deflector dish, on the top of the ship, was the _Aurora_ 's bridge module, although the Starfleet-style Captain's Yacht was built into the bottom of the primary hull, an addition made by the late Carlton Farmer during the _Aurora_ 's final construction.  
  
"It's… _huge_ ," Rose said, her eyes as wide as saucers.  
  
"A bit over a kilometer long, in fact," Leo said. "We have our own internal lift car system for moving across the ship."  
  
"And it can fly to other planets?"  
  
"With the warp drive we can go to other solar systems," he confirmed. "And the interuniversal jump drive lets us to go other universes."  
  
"Including different versions of Earth." Rose's smile of wonder turned bitter. "Most better than this one, I'm sure."  
  
"Oh, there are worse."  
  
"Not many, I'm sure." She lowered her eyes.  
  
"Well, not many recently had a terrible war, yeah. There's the Earth where Nazi Germany won the Second World War, too, although we recently beat them."  
  
"And how many where the people murdered entire families because one of them was a telepath?"  
  
"None I can honestly think of," Leo admitted. "Telepaths among Humans aren't common in the Multiverse. So far only six universes have seen Humans capable of it. Yours, the E5B1 universe that the Spencers came from, Ms. Al's home universe of M5G8, and the S0T5, S2C3, and A5R0 universes." He thought about the last three and what he knew of them and their histories involving persecution of telepaths, particularly the last one with its slavery-dominated empire controlled by the telepath-torturing sociopaths called Aristos, and let out a deep sigh. "I suppose each of those universe has had these things happen. Sheer hatred like I saw in that mob, and the insurgents, I have trouble grasping it. I've faced hate before, but never like that."  
  
"A lot of people around here associate them with the United Earth Government, and they consider them to be evil oppressors."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Rose shrugged. "Pick a reason. Because the Unies want to break down national distinctions and make everyone part of one Earth nation. Because their bureaucrats kept trying to impose economic policies on everyone before the war. The Unies act like control freaks, so the Dissies started forming in a bunch of places. And since the Unies started passing laws to make telepaths part of their investigations and security, it made everyone's fear of telepaths worse."  
  
"Even when they wanted nothing to do with the central government?"  
  
"Well, it was an excuse for a lot of people, I think," Rose said. "My grandparents were young when telepaths first manifested, and there were a lot of killings back then too. Telepaths are scary bogeymen to a lot of people." She glanced his way. "You can guess why, given what that one telepath did to you last night."  
  
Leo nodded quietly. It was something to have his own body stolen by another mind. It was terrifying and unreal to go through it. "It wasn't pleasant, but I'm not going to start thinking all telepaths are monsters because one kid did that to me."  
  
Even as he spoke, he considered how others might put that. _Some would be clever about it_ , he imagined. _They wouldn't outright be anti-telepath, they'd just make soothing noises about "protecting against the bad ones". They'd sound reasonable to scared people._  
  
"Growing up before and during the war, I never thought about it. All of the adults in my life said just about the same thing, that telepaths were dangerous and bad. That they liked to puppet other people for fun, that they spied on us. They were monsters, probably made in a lab by the Unies to control us. I never thought anything about it or that it was wrong. Not until Lily was suddenly sick and didn't want to be around people. Then I felt her voice in my mind and I knew why."  
  
"They call it a mindburst in E5B1," Leo said gently. "Telepathic powers manifest and the telepath gets overwhelmed by the voices around them. They collapse, usually. Causes them to lose consciousness from the overload in sensory information."  
  
"She said it came in her sleep. That she just heard the rest of us thinking. She was _terrified_ about it." Rose sniffled as the old memories continued to come back. "She came to me because I was the only one she trusted. She begged me not to tell, and I promised not to. I didn't. I swear I didn't."  
  
"But they got her anyway." Leo already imagined how it went. "The change in her behavior. Not wanting to go to school or socialize. Something tipped them off."  
  
"They took my little sister, and I couldn't stop them." Rose shook her head while the tears flowed. "I couldn't do anything. They had guns, and they threatened us, and Mom and Dad let them go. They let them go with Lily, and we never saw her again, _and they never talked about it_."  
  
There was fury in her words toward the end, mixed with grief and loss, which Leo knew was a wound he was powerless to heal. All he could do was take her hand and offer her the solace of that gesture.  
  
  
  
  
In his office in the Berlaymont building Security Minister Marias waited patiently. His reports for the day were done and his orders were out.  
  
The two figures that entered were other members of the Executive Council. Minister Tobias Winthrope was the Minister of Education and Minister Mohinder Tangri had the portfolio of Minister of Industry and Production. "Kanegawa didn't come?" Tangri asked, clearly unhappy with it.  
  
"He's not in the right mindset," replied Marias. "With time, we'll win him over."  
  
"We have no more time on this issue," insisted Winthrope. "The populace has to be rallied now, before the Alliance's technologies become widespread enough that they're susceptible to the influences from off-world. If we don't assume control of the Executive Council before an agreement is reached, nothing else will suffice."  
  
"Lawrence and Gorchkov will not relent easily," Marias said. His voice was carefully low, not too stern and not too eager. "We may have to use violence."  
  
"It's too late for that kind of thing," Tangri pleaded. "The Alliance is already here. Their technology is just as potent as the renegade ship that intervened against the Dissolutionists. If we act, they'll destroy us with ease. This purpose is hopeless."  
  
Marias slammed a fist on the desk before him. "It is _not_ hopeless, Minister Tangri, so long as we stand true to our beliefs! The Alliance is still a decentralized nation, with aliens that we can play against with careful diplomacy. If we make it clear that any interference will result in widespread military resistance, they will not try to stop us."  
  
"You still believe you can control the Legislative Council?"  
  
"I'm certain of it." He didn't speak aloud his thought that it was easy to control the politicians if you made it clear contrary votes would get them shot. _I hope the Reformist scum do try and resist. I'll shoot every one of them._  
  
"I still believe you underestimate the Alliance," Tangri said, shaking his head. "If they fight us, we lose."  
  
"If they fight us, we'll turn this planet into a guerrilla nightmare on them," Marias growled. "It's not like they'll be getting Dissie help since they're obsessed with helping telepaths. And they've admitted to the existence of other governments not in their alliance, governments we might be able to turn to in order to resist them. Now, I just need you two to keep the Premier from signing anything away, give me 72 hours on that, and when I'm done, we'll have the government, and our Union will _survive_."  
  
Winthrope nodded in agreement. Tangri's face betrayed he was not so supportive, but resignation showed as he finally nodded. "We leave the matter in your hands, Minister."  
  
"We'll make this work, I promise."  
  
  
  
  
Leo was in surgery with Dr. Opani this time. The patient was a woman, a camp resident who'd been a red tag case the prior day and needed several organs treated due to the scope of her internal injuries. This was her third surgery with Leo transplanting new kidneys due to the damage to the previous ones. Nasri was his attending nurse this time, helping with his tools and providing the sponge to wipe sweat from his forehead.  
  
"Looks good," Opani said as he made the final connection for the renal vein. "I'm opening the shunt."  
  
He waited for several patient seconds to see if functionality was coming back. A small smile came to his face as the display showed the kidney was working as intended. "We're set here," he said. "Mrs. Becky Rogers has new functioning kidneys. Let's get her back to post-op care."  
  
"The file says she has a husband and children in the camp," Opani remarked. "They'll be thrilled that she'll make it."  
  
"That they will."  
  
The surgical transporter unit eliminated the need for closing their patient up. Once her vitals were confirmed Nasri sent her off while Opani and Leo prepared the machines for the next case.  
  
When Nasri returned, she was frowning. "Doctor, Commander Richmond says you need to report to the lab immediately. Captain Kaveri and Captain Dale need to speak with you."  
  
Leo didn't like the sound of that.. He glanced toward Opani and received a nod in reply. "We have Doctor Sesantasl on standby in the post-op tent, I'll take over and bring him in to assist."  
  
"He's not yet operated on Humans," Leo remarked. "I'd prefer Walker or Hreept."  
  
"Walker's on _Aurora_ rotation today and Hreept's at the camp in Johannesburg," Opani noted. As if anticipating his next query, she added, "And Doctor Singh's at the Yogyakarta camp."  
  
"I see. Alright, bring in Sesantasl, and I'll go see why I've been called away."  
  
Another benefit to how they performed surgery was the elimination of having to regularly deal with blood and other bodily fluids and matter. Cleaning up usually amounted to changing out of the operation suits and showering off sweat, and given the urgency Leo figured he could get away with a fresh application of deodorant and using a towel. Afterward he donned his usual uniform and added his white lab coat before heading out.  
  
The on-site lab was set up in one of the structures nearby, a partially-intact strip mall. The remaining sign for the space they used indicated it was once been a chain of pharmacies, making the lab location fitting. He walked in to find Richmond present with Doctor Spencer, Nysha Williams, and Walter Smith. He felt their appreciation for his continued efforts and relief that he was okay given the prior night's excitement, but their attention was on the holo-viewer set up.  
  
The screen was set to Science Lab 3. Robert and Kaveri were present with the lab's head researcher. Dr. Ke'mani'pala was a Gl'mulli, an agendered gelatinous species that looked like living gumdrops that, depending on the surface, could either slide along or would walk on two stubby legs they formed from their bodies for that purpose. A device on the cyan surface of the alien scientist acted as both a voice vocoder, allowing her to communicate with other species, and sensors that translated audio-visual data into the electromagnetic spectrum the Gl'mulli used to sense their surroundings and communicate.  
  
Beside Ke'mani'pala was the head of the _Aurora_ 's isolab, Dr. Yithiri Dipthreek, a male Alakin from the Shreesep continent of that world. His plumage consisted of blues and greens while his mottled skin was a strong gray tone. His beak had a tapered shape to it, common to Shreesep-descended Alakin.  
  
"Captains, Doctors." Leo stepped up "You've found something about that illness?"  
  
" _We have, and the news is not good_ , _Leonard_ ," Ke'mani'pala said. " _We are still running analysis on the effects of the virus, but we can confirm a few things about it._ "  
  
" _For one thing, it is not airborne_ ," Diptheek said. Leo felt relief at that, relief shared by the rest of the room and utterly palpable from the telepaths present. " _The protein coating breaks down in the gases of an atmosphere._ "  
  
"Thank god," Nysha muttered. "The last thing we need is an epidemic here."  
  
" _Unfortunately, you may get one anyway. While the virus can't survive in atmosphere, it's incredibly virulent on whatever vectors it can survive in. We're still running tests on immune responses, but from what we can tell, the immune system of Human bodies are not equipped to counter this virus._ "  
  
" _Anything else we should know, Doctors?_ " Kaveri asked.  
  
" _There is one final piece of data, and it is the most troubling, Captain_." Ke'mani'pala's vocoder made a low, slow trilling noise, one Leo knew wasn't a good sign. It was the equivalent of a sigh. " _The biochemistry of this virus is very telling. It lacks the signs associated with the natural evolution of a virus species in nature._ _It is, in our opinion, a product of deliberate design_."  
  
"As in somebody _made_ this?" Walter asked, horrified. Beside him Spencer paled at the realization, but Leo could practically see the metaphorical gears turning inside her head.  
  
" _Exactly, sir._ " Diptheek nodded. " _This is a bioweapon, and someone has unleashed it upon your world._ "


	4. Chapter 4

Leo felt like he'd been punched in the gut. A bioweapon in an environment like the camp wasn't just an epidemic in the making, it was an outright _pandemic_ , one that could have already spread elsewhere.  
  
Including the _Aurora_.  
  
" _Rest assured, Doctor Gillam, that medbay is preparing for a full bio-scan of the ship, and to receive any cases_." The warbling tone to Diptheek's words made clear his own stress at the situation. He was, Leo recalled, a practicing xenovirologist, and this kind of problem was what he both trained for and dreaded to see.  
  
"And we're under quarantine for the time being, until we learn more about transmission vectors," Leo added. He watched as Nysha seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack at the news. He didn't blame her, given the damage a sickness like this could do to her little community.  
  
It was Spencer who spoke up next after remaining silent for the first few beats. “Don’t panic just yet Nysha. There’s someone else on this planet with advanced tech. More than that, the telepath isn't sick. Even with - the way terrorist cells work - prolonged contact. The symptoms are also all neurological, even the cough and auto-immune reaction...” At that point, she almost looked like she wanted to laugh a little bit, but she didn’t. “I think this bioweapon is targeted to mundanes, or rather, designed to exclude telepaths. I’ll send up some clean tissue samples for culturing, but you’ll want to focus in on the serotonin and acetylcholine receptors. They’re subtly different between us and mundanes - practically the only thing that shows up on the surface of a neuron in both latent and active telepaths, so that’s probably how the virus is binding.”  
  
" _Doctors, can you verify that telepaths are immune?_ " Kaveri asked them.  
  
" _Easily_ ," trilled Ke'mani'pala. " _I will examine the biochemistry of the virus and how it interacts with the samples Doctor Spencer provides. The results should not take very long to confirm._ "  
  
" _Could you use this information to come up with a vaccine or a cure?_ " Robert asked.  
  
“Oh sure. We’d need a retrovirus, probably something custom to deliver… well I know of CRISPR-based gene-editing but you might have something better. Basically cut the mundane versions of either the AChR or the various 5-HT1 receptors, and replace with the telepath versions, along with a promoter to ensure transcription. It won’t fix the damage that’s already done, but it will vaccinate. Hmm. Will probably need to include something to deactivate the old receptor too. So you’ll need a cocktail of retroviruses that also includes an irreversible competitive inhibitor.”  
  
Diptheek nodded his head once. " _I concur with Doctor Spencer, and our iso-lab has the means to create a suitable series of retroviral agents. I'll give priority to the vaccine, we'll need to begin creating preventative zones immediately around the site to avoid the disease's spread._ "  
  
“We’ll need to figure out if it’s spread by some sort of animal vector too. If it is, that makes our lives more difficult.” She added.  
  
Ke'mani'pala trilled in response. " _I will be continuing my examination of the virus. I find its biochemistry interesting._ "  
  
"Meanwhile we can talk to the cell's telepath and find out more about how they got sick," Richmond suggested, looking toward Kusko.  
  
“I’ll see what I can do. Maybe she’ll open up if she believes we’re trying to cure or prevent the disease.” Kusko paused for a moment, and smiled, though the look was very measured. “By the way, can you stop calling her the cell’s telepath?”  
  
Abigail winced “Yeah… I wasn’t going to say anything because she hasn’t given anyone her name and we don’t want to play the pronoun game forever but let’s not denote ownership or membership.”  
  
"I was speaking loosely, in that she's part of the cell for a reason we've yet to confirm," Richmond pointed out. "But your point is accepted."  
  
" _We are due to brief Deputy Secretary Crawford on this situation_ ," Kaveri said. " _Please keep us informed of any developments._ "  
  
One by one the screens shut down. The assembled glanced at one another for a moment. "Just in case, I'm going to make sure the militia's keeping an eye out for anyone else with symptoms," Nysha said. "Let me know if anything else happens."  
  
"I'll get back to surgery," Leo said. "We still have a few cases from yesterday that need follow-up operations. Let me know if you need anything, Doctor Spencer?"  
  
“Will do Dr. Gillam, hopefully some of the brains in the freezers still have viable cells, if not, I’ll have to get creative with a microtransporter.”  
  
"Somehow, I don't think I want to know," Richmond murmured before walking away with Kusko.  
  
  
  
  
The _Aurora_ and _Koenig_ command officers were present with Deputy Secretary Crawford's staff for the meeting in Conference Room 1. Robert waited patiently while Dr. Allen-Epstein, the _Koenig_ 's medical officer, provided the briefing to Crawford on the bioweapon. His staff betrayed understandable horror at the thought.  
  
It was Meridina who raised the obvious question. "How do we inform the United Earth authorities?"  
  
"Carefully," Henjasaram advised. "Minister Marias will likely accuse us of creating it, as things stand."  
  
"That man's a few cards short of a pack," Crawford muttered. "But you're right about that."  
  
"Neither can we keep it from them," one of the Dorei staffers said. "And their own intelligence and security services will be aware of this on their own soon enough."  
  
"I'll make the call, and promise full cooperation," said Crawford. "It'll make for an interestin' meeting tomorrow, that's for sure." He looked toward Robert. "Anything on those guns they showed us, Captain?"  
  
"We're developing a plan that might tell us whether there are any more on the planet, and where they are," Robert answered. "We should have the solution ready soon."  
  
"Then I'd better get to work on my end. Now, Captain, I don't want any problems with these people, so I'd like you to be cautious about launchin' your own raids. I'm speakin' with the President's authority on the matter."  
  
"I'll consult with you, of course."  
  
The word "consult" was not the same thing as "seek permission", and both men knew it, just as both men knew the latitude given to Paladins. Robert hoped his tone of voice and sincerity would make it clear he wanted to work with Crawford. The older man answered with a nod and a tip of his Stetson before leading his people out.  
  
Any further departure was stopped by the way Robert pointedly returned to his chair. Once Crawford and his people were gone Kaveri directed her attention his way. "Captain, I can see you have something more."  
  
"Yes. A new discovery, classified, that may shed light on this." Robert folded his hands on the table. "We've been going at this believing rogue elements in the Alliance were responsible. But there's another, more chilling possibility."  
  
"The SS?" Angel proposed. "They could've fooled with captured weapons."  
  
"Worse. What I'm about to tell you doesn't leave the room." Once they all nodded in affirmation Robert continued speaking. "For the last several weeks, the _Starship Huáscar_ has been on a classified mission to F7S4."  
  
"The hothouse Earth, you mean?" Cat asked.  
  
"That's the one. Long-range scans by the best sensors in the Alliance found an abnormality in the Cyrannus Cluster System, or as we know it…"  
  
"Helios," finished Gina. "The Colonies of Kobol."  
  
"Yes. And in F7S4, it was different."  
  
"Wait, different?" Cat's interest was piqued. "How?"  
  
Robert answered by keying the holotank, displaying the star cluster in question. "This is Cyrannus as it appears in N2S7 and elsewhere." With another key tap he created a second image. "This is Cyrannus in F7S4. Admiral Maran and Admiral Davies dispatched the _Huáscar_ to investigate last month."  
  
The differences were obvious. The second Cyrannus had an extra main sequence star and several more smaller stars. Cat gawked and then let out a little shriek of excitement. "Oh my God, ohmyGodthatsawesome. I have to ask Vee!"  
  
"She won't be able to tell you anything, even if you admit to knowing," Robert pointed out.  
  
"Why has it taken so long?" Locarno asked. "They should've made it there in a few weeks, at most."  
  
"The same long range scans identified a subspace dampening field around the system," Robert answered. "It'd make warp entry impossible. They had to spend a month working their way in on impulse power."  
  
"Well now, that's a scary thought," Scotty said from his chair. "A subspace field o' that size, stoppin' all warp? Maybe those extra stars are for powerin' it?"  
  
"They weren't. Because the _Huáscar_ found this."  
  
With another key press Robert replaced the image of the cluster with that of an old hulk of a ship. It was a ship, with something of the form of a squared rocket, tapering toward the nose. Two great squared oblong deck clusters thrust up from the main hull, and what might have been the track of a mass driver lay along the dorsal hull. The armour was thick, immensely thick, twenty metres or more, and was gouged and torn in every place. She hung in space, a ghost ship of an ancient battle, her bow splotched with colours which might have once been a shield or standard. She was enormous, three times the length of the _Aurora_ by the scale on the image--three kilometres long.  
  
"Wait a damn minute." Angel leaned forward. "I recognize that. It was in the Darglans' old records of potential threats."  
  
The way Jarod's face went white brought everyone else's attention. "Commander?"  
  
At Kaveri's comment Jarod rubbed at his eyes, as if to make sure of what he was seeing. "I've seen that before," he said. "From research I started earlier this year. From our trip to the Fracture." He pointed. "That ship matches old records in S0T5. It's a _Venguer_ -class dreadnought, a capital ship of the _Earthreign_."  
  
A hushed silence filled the room. "The Earthreign, ye say?" Scotty gave him a bewildered look. "Aren't those th' scunners that used t' be th' rulers of S0T5?"  
  
"Most of the people in the Fracture just call them the Reign, and refer to their collapse as the Reignfall," Jarod clarified. "Which happened three thousand years ago." A particular look came to his eyes.  
  
Robert nodded at him, showing he'd already made that connection. "For the benefit of everyone who doesn't know, three thousand years ago was when the Darglan were forced to give up interuniversal travel. It was when Swenya rose to prominence and led the Gersallians of her time into a terrible war that few came back from. It was about the time of the atomic destruction of the Earth in the N2S7 universe, and we believe the ancestors of the Colonists of Kobol would've left just beforehand. And, as Jarod just reminded us, it's when the Earthreign of S0T5 collapsed, their Earth vanished, and an entire section of the galaxy around where Earth is meant to be is now a shattered region of space-time."  
  
"That's a lot of things happenin' at once," Scotty observed. "I dinnae believe in coincidences like that."  
  
"All of these things are related," Kaveri said.  
  
"We know the Darkness War was multiversal in some way," Robert said. "The Doctor's description was clear that they've threatened other universes before. They invaded that Darglan Facility we found at Gamma Piratus and forced the Darglan to evacuate and trigger a suicide charge on the people left behind."  
  
"And now we have an Earthreign warship in another universe," Meridina said. "Did the Darglan bring it there for some reason? To help fight the war?"  
  
Robert didn't answer with words. He tapped the holotank control again. A new image came up, from the interior of a ship. "Commander Fera’Xero and officers from the _Huáscar_ took this image while examining the ship in question."  
  
"Holy crap!" Tom leaned in. "That's an IU drive! An original Darglan model IU drive!"  
  
Cat stared. "It is. How did the Earthreign get their hands on that? The Darglan didn't even share it with the Asgard!"  
  
Robert folded his hands on the table. "I admit I wasn't going to show this to you just yet. I had to plead with Admiral Maran to do it now, since Portland's still going crazy at the ramifications. But given what's happening below us, I think we have to consider how this comes together."  
  
"What, you think that some people from the Earthreign are still out here, causing trouble?" asked Lt. Cmdr. Magda Navaez, XO and Operations officer of the _Koenig_ and an old Facility hand. "That they're behind this?"  
  
"You think some of them survived, Rob?"  
  
To Zack's question Robert shrugged. "I don't know if any survived in another universe, although what the _Huáscar_ found certainly hints at it. But what I'm talking about is a regime we've already met. People who are just as ruthless and totalitarian as the Earthreign was said to have been, who come from the same region of space. People we've already run into that we know have Darglan technology."  
  
"NEUROM," Jarod said harshly. "You think it's them."  
  
"We know they have Darglan deflector technology," Cat offered.  
  
"And they have advanced ships with unique FTL drives, as we saw at the Citadel and DS9," Robert added.  
  
"It'd be easy for them to refine leftover Darglan weapons from the Darkness War into what we've found here, the same thing with any salvaged deflector systems," Tom offered. "But holy crap man, do you get what you're saying?"  
  
"That somehow they have access to Darglan IU drives? I do, and it scares the crap out of me, but it _fits_." Robert gestured to the screen. "If the Darglan, for whatever reason, let the Earthreign use their drives, then NEUROM's founders might've gotten their hands on an example. Along with all of the other Darglan technology we've seen them use."  
  
"So this entire time, all these last thousands of years, those golden-uniformed jerks with their creepy dominatrix agents have had IU tech?" Zack shook his head. "But you'd think we'd have found a sign of that before now. They're willing to conquer other worlds, right, why wouldn't they conquer into other universes?"  
  
"The fate of the Darglan, perhaps?" Kaveri kept a calm tone. "The material I have been given to read states that the Vorlons and other First One races punished them for something related to using the technology. Maybe they feared having the same done to them."  
  
Robert nodded in agreement. "That's just what I was thinking. I mean, imagine it. They sit on it for millennia because they're worried about letting the Darkness back in, or of getting the attention of ancient races, the forces the Doctor warned us about. Then we come along. They sit, and wait, but there's no sign of any problems. No Darkness, no Vorlons coming after us. The Alliance just keeps going."  
  
"And they figure it's safe now," Locarno said. "So they start looking into other universes too."  
  
“Exactly,” Robert shook his head ruefully. “The final piece is in Yellow warning us about Sovereign's debris. It implied detailed knowledge of another universe which might only come from, say, a Darglan database they have access to and we don’t.”  
  
"So here we are with someone handing out refined Darglan weapons to destabilize the world, in a way calculated to undermine our relations when we came along."  
  
Jarod brought a finger up. "If the bioweapon is theirs, there might be mention of it in S0T5 historical materials. Buried under a bunch of metaphor, most likely, but still there."  
  
"It's something to look into, and it makes this situation all the more important," Robert remarked. "NEUROM's been pushing at us this year, especially that attack on DS9. This might be their opening move for expanding on the interuniversal level."  
  
"Aye, it's always somethin' else," muttered Scotty.  
  
"Well, if it is them trying to get through the door, I say we slam it in their face," Angel said, flexing a fist.  
  
"If at all possible, Lieutenant, that is precisely what we should do," Kaveri agreed. "But our first priority remains the mission at hand. Commander Jarod, how soon until your sensor recalibrations are complete?"  
  
"We should be able to commence scans by tomorrow," he answered.  
  
"Excellent. Let us know when we get results. Everyone else, I suggest we go to standby running. If Captain Dale is correct, there is the possibility we will face NEUROM warships at some point, and we need to be ready."  
  
"We will initiate Code Blue running status immediately," Meridina said.  
  
"Then we are finished here, unless Captain Dale has more to share?"  
  
"I don't," Robert said. "This is the relevant part of the information."  
  
"Very well. You are all dismissed."  
  
  
  
  
Richmond waited with Kusko while the telepath was brought back from the cells installed on the _Brahmaputra_. The teen still looked sullen and uncooperative, but Richmond thought she could see the signs of relenting she'd hoped for. The time to realize how much trouble she was in would hopefully press the young lady toward more cooperation.  
  
By common agreement between the two Kusko went first.  
  
“Hey, you doing alright? Relatively speaking?” Kusko asked gently.  
  
The girl looked at her with hooded eyes. At first Richmond thought there would be no verbal response, but it came eventually. "I'm not in pain. But I don't matter. Linda and the others, they're real people, you should be asking them."  
  
“You’re a real person too.”  
  
"We're test tube babies. The Unies made us to spy on other people and make them obey the world government."  
  
“Do you think that telepaths across multiple universes were created by this piddly little government?” Kusko pulled up a chair and sat down.  
  
"I don't know about other universes, I don't even know you're really from one!" The girl gestured around. "This could be a trick. A stage you've set up to trick me and make me think this! But I know the truth."  
  
"And what truth is that, young lady?" Richmond asked.  
  
"Psifreaks shouldn't exist," the girl said. "We're wrong. Our powers are wrong. We're not natural. People aren't meant to read others' minds or control their bodies like that."  
  
Richmond kept the pleased smile she felt from forming on her face. "You heard these things from that woman, Linda, right? How did she justify you doing that very thing to Doctor Gillam, after he got you away from those soldiers?"  
  
The girl bit into ler lip and snarled. She crossed her arms and it was clear from her body language she wouldn't be answering.  
  
“Ignore her.” Kusko said flatly. <You’re not actually helping Lieutenant.>  
  
Richmond returned the thought carefully. _The more she's angry at me, the more leeway you might have to make this work_.  
  
<Point. And I get to play good cop. New at this.> She replied. “Look, here’s what I know. There are human telepaths in six different universes that I know of. This one, my home universe, the Spencer’s, and several others I haven’t met anyone from. There might be more. In all of them, telepaths emerged sometime in the early space-age across a period of thousands of years. In the Spencer’s home universe I live in now, most other space-faring species have telepaths. And in all of them, the genetics are… eerily similar. Do you know what that means?”  
  
"That other governments also want to spy on their people, obviously." The words were not said with much meaning behind them, more out of obstinate defiance than anything.  
  
“No. If that were true, they’d all be different. Similar solutions to the same problem maybe, but not _identical_. In my universe telepathy manifested spontaneously in many spacedwellers--”spacenoids”--simultaneously. And a heck of a lot of us were anti-Earth Federation. Your equivalent of Dissolutionists. Spacenoid Independence activists, if you want to call us that.”  
  
Richmond turned her head back to Kusko. _This is going to take more time. I think I know what will get through to her, although you may not like it_.  
  
<I know. But I have to ease her into it a little…> Thinking of memetic transfer for some reason before she caught Richmond’s drift. <Ugh. This is going to set things back…>  
  
 _You can work on that more later, but right now the doctors need more information._ Richmond activated her omnitool. "Young lady, right now our main concern is the illness in the people you were captured with. They may all die if we can't figure out how to stop it."  
  
"Ask the Unies. I wouldn't be surprised if they got us sick."  
  
"The Unies aren't exactly happy with us right now, given we didn't turn you over to them yesterday," Richmond pointed out. "If we're to cure your comrades, we need to know more about this disease. When the symptoms started showing up, for instance." She glanced to Kusko. _Her self-interest is warped to the benefit of her captors. She may cooperate to help them, especially if we make her feel like she's a full member of the cell._  
  
<Oh I like this even less!> And Kusko really didn’t, not at all. But then, it was Richmond on the chopping block at this point too. “And think, if they did it, they’re not exactly going to tell us, now are they? But if you tell us what you and your people were up to and when they started getting sick, we might be able to figure out how it spreads and _trace it back to the source_.”  
  
Richmond watched the girl's eyes as she considered their arguments. Her breathing slowed and her eyes lowered. "It started a week ago," she said. "We keep a cabin out on Kennesaw Mountain, near one of the streams feeding a beaver pond. Bobby was the first to get sick. He started coughing. Then he started getting these blue lines on his skin, and the blue spread to the rest of him. Linda didn't know what to do, she'd never seen anything like it, and she was an attending nurse down in Andersonville."  
  
Richmond didn't need to see Kusko to know how much she had to bury her revulsion at that admission. "Go on."  
  
"Mike got sick next, a couple days later, then Sandra. A few days ago most of the cell was starting to cough and Bobby, he collapsed. He died the day before yesterday." The girl's face twisted into grief. Tears formed in her eyes. "He was always the nicest to me. He… he didn't hit me when I accidentally read his mind, and he'd think jokes to make me giggle…" She sobbed.  
  
Richmond forced any trace of sympathy down, since Kusko was playing the sympathetic one. "I'm guessing that's when they decided to launch this foolhardy attack?"  
  
"Linda wanted to lure a Unie doctor out. She said she knew they didn't have a doctor here because another cell, uh, took care of her." It was obvious to all she meant the murder of the camp's physician. "We thought the attack would do more damage and the Unies would have to bring in their doctors. But we watched while your people stopped them. Everyone was starting to panic when Linda saw your doctor come out and start tagging people. She told Big Tom and Mark to go get a mob together and told us the plan to sneak in when the Unies showed up."  
  
"How did she know we'd let you?" Richmond asked.  
  
"I… I don't know, I think she was just going for whatever would work. Everyone was getting so sick. We had to leave Mike behind before the riot, he couldn't walk, and Sandra stayed with him since she wasn't feeling good either." As she spoke Richmond tapped away at her omni-tool, directing Lieutenant Lindstrom to take a team and scan for the two. "The mob gathered up and your doctor let us in, then we laid low until night. We just wanted one of your doctors, and he was the first one we could find." The girl sighed. "And that's it. Are… Are Linda and the others still alive? What's happened to them? I want to see them, I want to see them!"  
  
"They are, though the disease is rapidly progressing. They’re in isolation though, would video work?”  
  
"I _must see them_ , I mean, yes, video, just let me see them!"  
  
Richmond promptly tied her omnitool into the living section's holo-viewer, then tapped it into the _St. Johns_ ' recorders. Moments later the holo-viewer came to life to show the insurgents in their beds. One sheet was already covered, showing the occupant was deceased, but the other five were visible. Their faces had splotches of blue formed by the blue lines of enlarged veins throbbing against their skin. A few coughed loudly.  
  
The girl broke down crying at the sight. Her emotions, to Kusko, were a kaleidoscope of guilt and relief and fear and grief. She didn't want them to die, but deep down she wished they'd stop hurting her, and she wanted to be free, but she didn't want to be because freedom for psifreaks meant everyone else was their slave.  
  
 _They brainwashed that poor girl rather strongly_ , Richmond thought at Kusko, unable to keep her revulsion from giving real heat to the thought. _Apologies if that was too loud._  
  
<Part of it is the culture she lived in. The rest... She said what they wanted to hear often enough she believed it herself, and _rationalized_ what they did to her so that it would have meaning.>  
  
"Are… are they going to die?" the girl sobbed.  
  
"We're trying to prevent that, and you may have helped us." Richmond stood from the chair. Her eyes met Kusko's. _I'm going to look into the others she spoke about, you can continue dealing with her_.  
  
Kusko nodded.  
  
"My name is Regina," the girl said quietly. "Since you wanted to know."  
  
"Just Regina?" Richmond asked.  
  
She nodded. "That's the only name I can remember."  
  
"Well, Regina, Ms. Al is going to talk with you some more, and I will return later. Let her know if you need more food, the replicators are open." _For you both_. She left at that point.  
  
  
  
  
At Jarod's call Robert arrived in Science Lab 1 with Gina and Talara. Jarod, Cat, and Tom were present, as was Lucy. "Aren't you supposed to be translating?" Robert asked her, some bemusement in his pointed tone.  
  
"I needed a break, and this is more interesting," Lucy said defensively. "After three thousand years, it can wait another day, right?"  
  
"Well, unless the Brotherhood of Kohbal beats us there," Robert remarked flippantly. "Then the day will seem rather important, right?"  
  
She had no easy response to that, so her response was to playfully stick her tongue out at him. Robert chuckled at her. "Are we ready?"  
  
"Sensor calibrations are complete," Jarod said. "Cat's got the sensitivity set right, we should be able to make it out."  
  
"Begin the scan, then."  
  
They started working, operating their controls and, through them, the powerful Darglan-designed sensor systems that gave the _Aurora_ such a wide range of detection methods with the precision and resolution it enjoyed with them. At the holotank in the middle of the Science Lab, a likeness of the Earth blipped into appearance.  
  
One by one, returns came, briefly blinking red before turning blue. "Blue are for all naqia traces we account for," Cat explained.  
  
"Right." Even as he replied Robert saw the first red one blink into existence. Another came, then another and another.  
  
"Most of those are cities," Lucy observed. "Tel Aviv, Portland in Oregon, Wellington, Auckland, Seattle…"  
  
"...Honolulu, Samoa, Manila, Tehran, Trincomalee, Alma-Ata." Robert finished comparing the red blips to the cities he knew on the top of his head. "Bangkok too."  
  
"Rio de Janeiro, Curtiba, and Brasilia," Jarod added. "And I'm starting to notice a very concerning pattern."  
  
"Oh?" asked Leo.  
  
"The cities in question." Robert frowned. "They're all capitals or major cities in the nations that are considered Reformists inside the United Earth power structure."  
  
"That would mean NEUROM is arming the Reformists." Cat shook her head. "But that doesn't make sense. The Reformists want freer government. They treat their telepaths the best. Why would NEUROM be for people who oppose everything they want?"  
  
"I can think of a few things," Robert muttered. "Triggering a devastating new war on the planet's the most likely of those reasons, but we've got to be careful for the other ones." He turned to the others. "Thanks for this. Relay those results to my secure systems on the _Jayhawk_ , I need to consult with Admiral Maran and Crawford."  
  
"Sending the data now," Cat answered. "So, you're not going down there lightsaber swinging, are you?"  
  
"No, definitely not, but I'll be doing something," he promised.  
  
  
  
  
After Lt. Richmond left, Kusko found herself sitting at the interrogation table across from Regina. Admittedly, it was nice to finally have ner name. She was still on the verge of crying for people who most definitely didn’t deserve her tears, but there was nothing for that right now.  
  
“I’m sorry about Bobby.” She said after letting a moment of silence pass. He was the only one who might be worth it. “I’ve lost a lot of comrades…that seems to be the one commonality among all human telepaths other than the genetics. Loss.”  
  
“Doesn’t matter…” Regina replied weakly, her eyes still watered over with barely choked back tears. “Psifreaks aren’t real people. We shouldn’t exist so the only good we can do is strike back at our own creators so the world can be put right again…” She’d finally answered Richmond’s question at least.  
  
Kusko mulled that over, turning it around in her head, trying to figure out what the best approach would be. “So what if we were created? We still hurt, bleed, feel, mourn, love. Why does that make us less than human? Is genetically modified corn somehow… not corn?”  
  
“Still doesn’t change the fact that people have a right to not get snooped on. People’s thoughts should be private…”  
  
“Or… people should adjust what privacy means. If the world was blind, but suddenly some people could see, should they put their own eyes out to avoid looking at people; or should people start wearing clothes to hide their nakedness if they care so much?”  
  
The logic of that argument - flawed though it admittedly was given the limitations of analogous experience and language - created a crack and Regina lashed out emotionally. Not telepathically, but in a way that belied the fact that the poor girl had almost certain helped kill people. In so many ways, Regina was still a teenager, a child.  
  
“You don’t understand! You can’t! You don’t know what I’ve been through, you haven’t seen what I’ve seen! You can’t be right, it has to _mean something_!”  
  
That was when Kusko did it, Regina was relatively powerful, but she’d never actually been trained and her blocks were like tissue paper to someone trained - even briefly - in the Corps. The memories she shared were flashes, horrible flashes of anguish and grief for friends whose bodies rejected the implants and destroyed themselves from the inside-out. “But I do kid. And I thought the same damn thing. I was willing to throw my life away for it. When Newtypes - telepaths - were discovered in my home universe, we were celebrated as proof of Zeon Zum Deikun’s predictions of our evolution as a space-faring people. Then he was murdered, and Oldtypes took over. They did _that_ to us, and I convinced myself it was for the greater glory of Zeon… but it was just power-grubbing Oldtypes.”  
  
Kusko's words were heard, but Regina's reaction was from the memories shared. Flashes of memory came from her mind, of being strapped to gurneys, of drugs, of surgeons poking in her brain, people talking in words she didn't understand. She remembered the bed and darkness, the feeling of the cloth over her eyes that kept her blind, and all of the panic and fear of the minds around her as they languished in the darkness. Kusko though was caught up in her rant, and didn’t catch it.  
  
“We were put into the service of an ideology which wanted to _dissolve_ the Earth Federation--we were _told_ we were special, so we had to _sacrifice_ more. To be experimented on. To harness our infinite potential to win the war. To turn ourselves into machines. They made trading cards with our images and they ordered us to kill, and kill, and kill. So kill we did. Zeon called us the future, the Dissies call you Psifreaks. But you and I got treated the _same way,_ and that’s because Oldtypes feared us. As long as we let them have power over us, we’ll never realize our true destiny, no matter what that is. We’ll just be their pawns.”  
  
“So we're all really tube babies," she said, her voice hollow as the memories kept rippling through her. Kusko's words melded with the memories scything through her psyche. "You are too. Our powers come from things in tubes. And… and at least the people at Andersonville were trying to destroy our powers, they were trying to free people from us!"  
  
“No!” Kusko slapped that down hard. “They were trying to murder something they didn’t understand, like some Oldypes have always done. And what they can’t murder they subjugate. Created or not, the legacy of humanity is ours too, and they have no right to take it or our future from us!”  
  
The words came to her ears. They echoed with a voice from her thoughts. _Regina. I'm Regina! I'm Regina!_ Where did that thought come from?  
  
The anger. She felt the anger again. Was it anger? It was vibrant, red. The fury burned through the darkness.  
  
 _‘What the hell is this?’_ Kusko thought to herself, p’seeing that broadcast loud and clear.  
  
The trembling voice. " _What the hell is this?_ " Then the screams, the cries of agony and the smell of blood, flesh ripping. A door opened somewhere, not just any door but _the_ Door, and people screamed as they fell in. The straps came off, the darkness ended. Her eyes hurt from the light. Through it she saw the woman, clad in darkness, the blades singing through the air as they cut through the men and women in the pale blue suits. The dark woman glared at them and stabbed a finger in the air. " _Get out!_ "  
  
There was running then, a tide that pulled her along. The thought _I'm Regina_ in her head. She felt the door opening again, heard the roaring flames, the cries, the _burning_ that seemed to sear her skin when no flame touched it. She remembered being grabbed and pulled away from the tide.  
  
Thomas’ mental voice came over Kusko’s communicator; loud and clear was an understatement. “That’s one hell of a flashback. I’m on my way.”  
  
The face filled her vision. Linda. The name was Linda. She looked over her. " _What's your name, teep?_ " _Regina. I'm Regina!_ The woman's hand came up, stinging pain on her cheek. _"Talk like a real person, dammit, that hurt!_ "  
  
Linda took her along. Others came. They hid, they fought. She remembered their disgust, she remembered the first slaps for hearing their thoughts. The end of the war, defeat, the Unies everywhere. " _If you try to go to them, we'll kill you dead, psifreak"_ , Big Tom warned frequently. " _We'll kill you good and dead, like any other freak_."  
  
 _But I only wanted to sing_ … She asked to sing and they said no, all except Bobby, who made her laugh and never ever hit her, he just wanted the Unies gone, he even stopped Big Tom from beating her one time when she sang in her head. But now he was dead and he wouldn't make her laugh anymore.  
  
The newer memories were sharper, ones she could grasp, but they still hurt when joined with the older ones. They rose again, looping endlessly, and the tears flowed from her eyes. She didn't want them back. She just wanted to hear the song again. "Girls just wanna have fun," she wept, trying to sing. "They just wanna have fun".  
  
Then, the loop stopped. Frozen. Her consciousness felt like it swam in an endless void for a brief instant. A tapping sensation and then her _self_ shattered apart into a million pieces as something sorted through them finding the corners then expanding out to the edges, and found pieces from a different puzzle. Then a voice, another person, this one kind manifested in the darkness.  
  
 _‘You’ve been through hell little one. Not all of it your own. My name is Thomas Spencer and I’m here to make it right.’_ The pieces started to assemble into recognizable events, connected to other fragments, faces she’d forgotten, birthdays she’d celebrated, camping trips, soccer practice, songs, so many songs. Songs she sang with her family, with friends. Then a pause, stasis.  
  
Thomas closed his eyes and sank into the chair Kusko had been occupying. ‘Regina’ was face-down on the table, unconscious in her chair. It had been forty minutes. “This is going to take a while… I don’t have all the details yet, but her memories were disrupted and co-mingled with another person’s drug-induced mania. I have to reconstruct her episodic memory.” He tapped the communicator on his wrist “Sis, I’m gonna be a while…”  
  
“Figures with that mess!” She replied with her typical bedside manner. Which was to say, acerbic. “I’ve got things covered here. Too bad, you’re missing out on some fun virology!”  
  
“Hey, you better fill me in! I can’t remember my first wife’s name without thinking about rancid-” she cut him off.  
  
“Science appreciates your donation. Don’t sweat it, you didn’t need those ones. She was terrible and you need to remember that or else you might go crawling back! Bye!” She cut the connection.  
  
“It’s been twenty years and she still won’t let it go…” he muttered.  
  
“Wait. What was that about not needing your neurons?” Kusko asked, slightly horrified.  
  
“Oh. We needed samples for testing because none of the bodies on ice had good tissues. So I volunteered and she found a cluster of about ten neurons that I…” he paused and grumbled the next few words “ _didn’t need_.”  
  
  
  
  
The next morning Kaveri and Meridina went over the Gamma Shift logs together at a working breakfast with Crawford in Conference Room 1, giving their insights to the questions he and his staff posed as they worked.  
  
Robert arrived as the breakfast came to an end. "Mister Deputy Secretary." He handed him a digital pad. "The scan findings."  
  
"Well now, let me see here." Crawford looked them over. His face grew into a solid frown as he did. "Captain, if this is right, then Minister Marias may very well have justification for his paranoia. Someone's arming the states most likely to oppose their central government."  
  
"For what it's worth sir, this could be a setup of some sort. If we tell the United Earth government, and show them this evidence, they'll certainly launch some kind of pre-emptive strike and start a war."  
  
"And if we don't show it, they might find out, do it anyway, and figure we were involved." Crawford shook his head. "Well, talk about being squeezed between a rock and a hard place."  
  
"I could launch my own operation," Robert suggested. "My team and I could take out these locations one by one, especially with Major Anders' Marines working with us."  
  
Crawford pursed his lips in thought for a moment before smacking them. "I get what you're aimin' for, Captain, but I'm not for that. Not right now. Landin' Marines, or anyone, for an operation like that, well, that'll give Mister Marias what he wants too."  
  
"This may be the best way to prove the origin of these weapons, sir. Recovered information from the cache locations."  
  
"I understand that son, I really do, but for the time bein', I think it's best to let sleepin' dogs lie. We'll keep talkin' to these folks and see how it goes. Why don't you remain on standby in case we do gotta move?"  
  
A look passed between them. Crawford knew Robert could choose to go anyway, and Robert knew that might make the situation worse. He finally nodded. "Of course. I'll stay on standby until it becomes necessary."  
  
"Right, Captain. Now, why don't you dig in to this fine breakfast Mister Hargert's kitchen made? We'll be beamin' down soon ourselves, and nothin' helps diplomacy like a good hearty Texan breakfast."  
  
  
  
  
After a morning run with Miko and some breakfast at one of the cafes in the Colony's Visitors' Quarter, it was time for Julia's next appointment with Doctor Schneider. This time she came in full duty uniform as if she were heading to the _Aurora_ bridge, and she carried herself like it.  
  
Schneider grinned at her and bid her to sit. "How are you doing, Captain?" she asked.  
  
"I'm improving every day," Julia answered.  
  
"Any nightmares?"  
  
"Only a particularly strange dream about a Volus, a Ferengi, and a Brakiri trying to sell me broken down engine parts," she answered. "And the Ferengi threw in my old motorbike, which was a little unfair."  
  
Schneider laughed. "A real dream, or are you being sarcastic with me, Captain?"  
  
"A real dream, I take this therapy seriously. But I'm not happy with it."  
  
"You believe I was unkind?"  
  
"I believe you might have an agenda, or are otherwise pushing something."  
  
"You're being forthright. Good, that's good for you. Did you think on what I said?"  
  
Julia nodded. "I did, and I think it's crap. Yeah, I put a lot of stock into being a captain, because it's the kind of thing I've always wanted to do. But commanding a starship doesn't define me. I could join the colony government here if I wanted, or go become a trader, or maybe even go back to playing women's basketball professionally." Julia listed those items off with steel in her voice. "But I'm a damn good captain and I can still serve the Alliance, and I've put a lot of time into my service so far."  
  
"There are other ways to serve the Alliance, Captain, than starship command," Schneider pointed out. "You could be a naval advisor on diplomatic teams. You could command a space station, or a planet-based facility, or a shipyard. Given your place in this Alliance's foundation, you could even begin a political career. Maybe stand for election to the Alliance Council?"  
  
"Maybe I'll do any or all of those things one day, but right now, I believe I serve best as a starship captain," she insisted. "It's not a role just anyone can have, especially not on one of the fleet star cruisers. It's not just about combat tactics and strategy. It's about managing people. About balancing the act of being a diplomat and an explorer and a fighter, and knowing which role you have to focus on in each situation." Julia knew her voice was getting passionate, but she didn't hold it back. "Being the captain of a ship like the _Aurora_ means getting to be the first face of the Alliance to a newly-encountered world or species. We make decisions that can write history. I've already done that, and I know I have what it takes to do it again, Doctor. And I'm determined to do it."  
  
Schneider jotted down a few notes. "You sound like you're ready to fight the entire service, if need be, to get your ship back. Would you really try to do something like that? A slower, more patient approach might see you given even greater command authority, might even get you into the Admiralty before you're thirty-five given your age."  
  
"I don't think so," Julia answered. "And while I'll love to make admiral one day, right now my place is at the command chair of a ship. I never agreed to give that up, not unless I couldn't do it, and I know I can."  
  
"You believe you can. You cannot know."  
  
Julia looked at the old woman with increasing suspicion. "Why are you trying to talk me out of this?" she asked. "You're supposed to judge my mental state, not try to guide my career."  
  
Schneider folded her hands on the table. "You're being rather aggressive today, aren't you? You feel threatened by me, then?"  
  
"More like I'm getting fed up with what I feel are attempts to manipulate me," Julia answered. "I've seen psychiatrists before, as part of my duties and earlier in my life. I've never seen one act like you. It's like you came out of the gate looking to burn any bridge I might form with you. And all this harping about my future, I'm honestly considering issuing a complaint, Doctor. I consider this inappropriate."  
  
Schneider didn't lose her smile. "You fight for yourself quite admirably, and you're not afraid to be direct. Interesting. I'd say you're treating me in the same fashion you speak of with star cruiser command. In our last session you were the diplomat, looking to set a tone for our discussion and making what you thought was a concession in your appearance to win my approval. Today you are the fighter, finding ground and taking a stand on it." Schneider jotted another note down and Julia wished she could pull the pad to her hands like Robert could. "How does this training with Princess Miko progress? Is she doing well?"  
  
"It's not really your business, but yes, she's learning the style of _t'ai chi_ well, I think," Julia replied. "It's taken her a while but she's learning the forms and the flexibility in it."  
  
"Good, good. Have you had any traumatic episodes related to your ordeal…?"  
  
The questions came and Julia gave honest, simple answers to them, keeping her patience as she did so. Their time was soon up and she got up to leave. "Still no clearance to return to duty?"  
  
"I'm close to my decision. One more session, I think, will do it."  
  
"One more session." Julia nodded at her and left. _I need to get ahold of Lieutenant Commander Borja, or Lieutenant Vajpayee. Something's rotten here._  
  
  
  
  
After Julia was gone for five minutes, Schneider noted an incoming call on a private line. She turned it on. "Doctor Gertrude Schneider, how may I help you?"  
  
The image that appeared was that of Admiral William Davies, Vice-Chief of Naval Operations for the Alliance Stellar Navy. Like Dr. Schneider he hailed from the H1E1 universe of the Earth Confederacy. " _Dr. Schneider. I'm sure you know the case i'm calling about."_  
  
"Captain Andreys, I imagine," she replied. "You're aware that there is attached privilege here, even with military regulations."  
  
" _I am, but you're also required to share your general thoughts with us on the patient's suitability in service_ ," Davies answered. " _And as I've hoped has been made clear, the service has certain expectations. If we find out someone's not upholding them, they won't be happy with the result._ "  
  
"I've been made aware of your 'expectations,' Admiral," she answered. "But you may be disappointed. Captain Andreys is going to fight to return to duty. She's even ready to issue complaints about me if I refuse her."  
  
" _She said so?_ "  
  
"She didn't need to. I can see it in her. She's a fighter."  
  
" _Don't let it deter you from making the right call, Doctor_. _Here in Portland we've had grave doubts about her suitability for some time, and the trauma she endured only makes our concerns more acute. We can't let her be returned to service on sentiment. I hope your findings are made as appropriate._ "  
  
"My findings are not finalized, but I'll give the Stellar Navy the results it hired me for," she replied simply. "Now, I have another appointment coming in soon, so I must be going."  
  
" _Of course. I look forward to your final determination being made soon, Doctor. Davies out_." He disappeared from the screen.  
  
  
  
  
With the morning rounds done Leo headed for the lab. He found Abigail Spencer present and openly conversing with Ke'mani'pala over an open comm. " _The process you describe is fascinating_ ," the Gl'mulli scientist was saying. " _Your mental communication ability, unique compared to the rest of your species as it is, holds similarities to how my species exchanges information._ "  
  
“Huh. I wonder if some of the necessary genes were borrowed… it’s not entirely unique though. Most of the species in my home universe have had telepathy grafted on.” She replied. As Leo entered, she didn’t even look up from what she was going over “Hello Dr. Gillam. Thomas won’t be joining us just yet, he had a memory to reconstruct. ‘Regina’ was a _mess.”_ ”  
  
"I heard." He stepped up to one of the scanners. "All of the bombing survivor cases are in recovery now. Doctor Walker finished the last surgery this morning." His eyes tracked the readout on the display. "Any luck with the vector?"  
  
“Oh yes!” Abigail replied enthusiastically. “Regina gave us the location of infection. The virus is present in both the water - concentrated in a beaver pond - and in the local mosquitoes, mostly _Culex quinquefasciatus_. We’re still working up the physiology of how that works, but it’s in the salivary glands, and Dr. Ke’mani’pala is just about to get other results...”  
  
" _The cultures you provided have proven the hypothesis presented,_ " Ke'mani'pala said. " _The virus is unable to bond with the neurons in the marked cultures, only with the control sample without the receptors your cultures contained._ "  
  
Abigail took in an exultant breath and grasped the air with her gloved hands, bringing it in to her chest. “Rightness. It is mine. You hear that universe?” She pointed at nothing with her other hand. “Mine. And won’t my brother be pleased!”  
  
Leo felt relief, not just in identifying the vector, but finding a possible weak point to beat the virus. "And now that we've confirmed that, Doctor Ke'mani'pala, how fast do you think we could use this to stop the virus?"  
  
" _Oh, I've already begun some chemical work on deriving a retroviral solution. Altering receptors to prevent the virus from binding shouldn't take long at all with all of the samples I have available. A more complicated effort for a counter-viral agent will be a greater undertaking, but I will consult with Dr. Diptheek to begin those efforts as well._ "  
  
“At home it would take weeks to incubate a vaccine, here… well you can make HIV or whatever with the relevant modifications inside a few minutes once you’ve got the details worked out. We really need to step up our rollout of that tech…”  
  
"Keeping up with the advance of medical technology in the Multiverse feels impossible half of the time," Leo admitted. "Sometimes I think I should relegate one of my staff to nothing but reading medical journals."  
  
“You mean you don’t already? Huh. Memetic transfer is a hell of a drug…”  
  
"Not all of us are born with the ability to share information that easily," Leo lamented with a relieved grin at their success still on his face. "Doctor Paxson on the _Discovery_ did write a paper once recommending a PA-level medical professional be assigned to each star cruiser to brief the medical staff regularly on new advances, but Personnel never got around to acting on it."  
  
“Ah. Bureaucratic inertia. Still, we can’t possibly retain everything. No sapient can, not really. It’s a matter of not being in unknown unknowns territory, but known unknowns and knowing where to look. We _cheat shamelessly_ , but there are definite limits on the degree to which we prosper. Anyway, Thomas probably wants to know that his donated neurons were useful. Then I need to start work on setting up vaccination infrastructure. I’ll back.” With that, she bustled out of the bay with a jaunt in her step. The camp was sprawling and there was a lot to organize. They had to assume that everyone in camp had been exposed if it was transmitted by mosquitoes, to say nothing of off-site teams.  
  
Leo turned his attention back to the reader. "Ke, we'll want to synthesize as much of the retroviral agent as we can so we can nip this thing in the bud. See if the Federation ships can be ready to help out."  
  
" _I will communicate with Dr. Selana on the_ T'Pol _and Dr. Eisenburg on the_ M'Benga." Ke'mani'pala formed manipulating digits from her gelatinous body to use a control in her lab. " _It was interesting to speak with Dr. Spencer on communications. Human telepaths communicate not dissimilarly to Gl'mulli._ "  
  
"So I've heard," Leo answered. "And since the high end ones can sense EM fields, there may be a biophysical connection there."  
  
" _Indeed. It will make for an interesting paper. Perhaps I will ask her to co-author one with me?_ "  
  
At that Leo grinned. "Well, you two will already have first dibs on a paper about—"  
  
A hot, stinging pain struck Leo square in the back. His muscles seized up and he collapsed on his side. He struggled to try and breathe while most of his body's muscles refused to respond to commands. He was barely able to turn his neck enough to look up at his attacker. The name formed on his lips, but he had little air to speak.  
  
" _Rose?_ "  
  
Rose Williams finished locking the lab door. She turned back, her hand gripping a Darglan-style pulse pistol. She walked toward him.  
  
" _Doctor Gillam?_ " The trilling in Ke'mani'pula's electronic voice betrayed her worry. " _Leonard? What happened?_ "  
  
Rose got close enough to look into the viewer. She lowered her weapon at Leo and pushed her thumb up the power control. "Destroy all of your work," she demanded, glaring into the viewer at Ke'mani'pala. "Or I'll kill him."  
  
  
  
  
The day's meetings narrowed down to Gupta, Fluck, and Kanegawa, while Meridina had likewise returned to the _Aurora_ to assume the watch given the situation in Atlanta. This left Kaveri and Bet'tir with Crawford's team with the discussion now on the mechanics of Earth T7C8's admission to the Multiversal community. "It is important for us to be capable of asserting our sovereignty over our world," Kanegawa said. "As thankful as we are for your assistance, we feel we must take the time to consider all of the options the Multiverse provides for us."  
  
"We've got no objections to that, Mister Minister," Crawford said. "Our concerns are about your vulnerability. Your world needs time to recover, after all, and while you're rebuildin', you're susceptible to unfriendly governments offerin' you snake oil to get in on what goods you can still make." Crawford gestured to one of his staff. "Now, my people have a suggestion to make for—"  
  
The room's comm system let out a loud ring. Kanegawa sighed and, with an apologetic look on his face, answered. "Is there an issue?"  
  
" _Sir, this is Captain Ollanda of the Council Security Unit. We have armed security forces surrounding the Berlaymont Building and other structures of the Union Quarter. We've asked them to disperse and they're not responding._ "  
  
The Alliance diplomats could tell their hosts were unsettled by that, but it was Kaveri who openly frowned. She'd seen this before, indeed, just half a decade ago. Images of Earthforce Marines and Nightwatch personnel storming EarthDome's offices, the Senate, and ISN came to her. _And now it happens here_.  
  
" _Captain_." The voice was Meridina's. " _We're detecting a general transmission from a source in Brussels, it's overriding the planetary communication system_."  
  
"Put it on to my omnitool, Commander." Kaveri's hand tapped at the blue light controls surrounding her left forearm, generating a holographic viewscreen that got the attention of everyone at the table..  
  
Security Minister Marias' face filled the screen. " _Attention, loyal citizens of the Earth National Union. I am Security Minister Paul Marias, and I am forced by circumstance to make this announcement with the support of several of my peers on the Executive Council. After significant investigation, we have determined that those governments that adhere to the so-called 'Reformer' political doctrines are in fact in collusion with Dissolutionist rebels and off-world agencies. We have proof that they have subverted the President and the Executive Council with telepathic agents_."  
  
"He's mad!" Gupta shouted, furious. "This will provoke another war!"  
  
" _In light of this evidence, as a patriot of our new global nation of Mankind, united under a single flag to a common destiny, I am taking the President and the Executive Council into custody, and have ordered the arrests of all suspected traitors in the Union government_." Marias raised a fist. " _I take this action with a heavy heart, but we must act to save ourselves from division and off-world conquest! All security forces of the Union, in conjunction with our proud fighting men and women, must move quickly to seize traitorous elements in all of the regional governments of the world, before civil war claims us all._ " Marias raised his chin. " _And lastly, I call upon the representatives of the Allied Systems, as they call themselves, to honor the principles they claim to cherish, and to stand aside while we secure our world from future conflict. I will regard any interference by the Alliance in this action as proof of their collusion in their conspiracy, and all off-world personnel will be dealt with as enemies of the Union. God save the United Earth and the Human Nation!_ "


	5. Chapter 5

No sooner did Marias' message end than his troops started entering the buildings. Some of the building security didn't bother resisting, surrendering immediately, while others opened fire and sought to protect their charges. The sounds of gunfire started filling the Union Quarter of the city of Brussels.  
  
In their conference room in the Berlaymont building, the ministers of the United Earth were still struck dumb by what was occuring. "Peers? What madmen would support this?!" demanded Fluck.  
  
"Winthrope," Gupta suggested. "And Tangri. They've favored Marias' authoritarian pushes before. And Gorchkov might back him."  
  
"If he's brought together the security forces for the region for this, we'll never hold him off." Fluck looked with panicked eyes to Kanegawa. "You're the Defense Minister! Call in the troops, protect the government!"  
  
Kanegawa shook his head. "Is… are you sure he's wrong? Look at what's going on! The Reformists have been pushing this agenda, now suddenly there's alien rifles and a bioweapon, maybe something is subverting the Union."  
  
"You can't believe that!"  
  
As they fussed Kaveri leaned in toward Crawford. "Sir, Captain Dale's operations team is standing by. With our Marines we could nip this _coup_ in the bud, and we can beam out any threatened aid workers in short time."  
  
Crawford ran his hand over his chin in thought. "I understand what you're proposin', Captain, and it's mighty temptin'." He shook his head. "But it's not what we're here for. We can't just intervene with these folks' politics willy-nilly, it'll turn on us."  
  
"With all due respect, Deputy Secretary, the way things look, they are going to turn on us regardless. Whatever off-world forces are manipulating the situation will see to that."  
  
She saw the doubt glint in his eyes. He wasn't sure he was making the right call. Nevertheless his jaw set and he shook his head. "They have to ask," he insisted.  
  
  
  
  
Marias' diatribe played over the speakers in the _Jayhawk_ cockpit. Robert finished latching the arm guard of his blue combat armor into place and pulled the brown robe that _Mastrash_ Kilaba gifted him onto his shoulders. It was, perhaps, a silly thing to add, but it was an extra touch that complemented the armor and gave a unique look that he thought was an advantage in conflict. It also served to give a uniform feel as Gina and Talara pulled their robes over their own sets of combat armor. _I'd feel better if Lucy were here, but she's still off active duty_.  
  
A holo-viewer screen showed the bridge, where Meridina was on duty. " _We have no orders authorizing intervention_."  
  
"No, but as a Paladin, I've got some leeway on that," he answered. "I'll have to answer to Maran and President Morgan for it, but I'm not going to allow our people to be killed or made hostages."  
  
" _What are your intentions, then, Captain?_ "  
  
"Wait at the Berlaymont building under cloak, move in if absolutely necessary or it gets authorized." He gestured to the helm controls. "Talara, are we ready?"  
  
She took over. "All systems are ready, and a platoon of Major Anders' Marines are in the loading area. The major is preparing another strike force on the _Gonzales_."  
  
He nodded. "Cloak and take us out."  
  
The _Jayhawk_ rippled from sight as she launched from the shuttle bay, banking down toward the Earth below after she cleared the _Aurora_.  
  
  
  
  
Self-diagnosis was always a tricky matter for a doctor to perform, but in this case Leo felt justified by the situation he was in. _Pain is consistent with a stun shot with a pulse gun. The partial motor paralysis backs that up. I'm still conscious, so it wasn't full power. I should start getting some motor control back soon_ , _although it won't do me any good right now._  
  
Rose's hands shook slightly, but not enough to completely throw off her aim. If she pulled the trigger he'd take another shot, and the weapon was set to kill.  
  
On the screen Ke'mani'pala was manipulating the controls of her station. Rose kept looking back from her to Leo. "Go faster," she urged. "Delete it all!"  
  
" _There are redundancies_ ," Ke protested.  
  
Leo found his voice box was at least working. "Rose, what are you doing? What is this?"  
  
"It's about ending this," she said. "Stopping this abuse of telepaths, once and for all. The plague will see to that."  
  
"How will a plague stop it?" Leo found a little strength returning to his voice. "A plague that anyone will quickly see doesn't hurt telepaths? It'll just give people another reason to hate them."  
  
The look in her eyes was wild. Fury, grief, and shame burned alike in the intensity Leo saw there. She met him eye to eye even as her gun shook slightly. "They'll fear them more," she said. "Once the plague's run its course, telepaths will be the majority here. The banals won't pose a threat, _ever again_."  
  
Leo swallowed to try and clear the lump of fear he had in his throat. Given the mosquito-based vector of the plague and the logistics of trying to deal with them, they were pressed for time. If they could get a vaccine into place now, then they had a shot at containing the outbreak with vaccinated populations. If they didn't, its global spread became more assured with every passing day.  
  
WIth this in mind, he pressed onward despite the risk. "You're talking about a world with _billions_ of dead, Rose! It'll break all of civilization, and telepaths will suffer from it just as much. Even worse, you're leaving them with the stigma of benefiting from the mass slaughter of billions of their neighbors, their loved ones and friends!"  
  
"It'll be better in the long run," she insisted. "It… it has to be."  
  
"It won't. It doesn't work like that."  
  
Rose turned on him with violence in her voice. " _What do you know?!_ " she shrieked. "You weren't here! You didn't live here, you didn't see them take them away! You didn't hear the things they said! You didn't deal with the terrible things they justified, the terrible things they were doing to _my little sister!_ " The ferocity of her tone made her voice grow more hoarse by the syllable. "They're _animals_ , Doctor, and this is _precisely what they deserve, what we all deserve_."  
  
"Even you? With all the compassion you've shown, you think you deserve this?"  
  
Leo hoped it might make her reconsider, but even with the tears welling up in her eyes, she didn't stop. "Yes," she said. "I do." She directed her eyes toward the viewer again. "Show me your work. Show me you're destroying the data, or I'll _kill him_."  
  
" _Very well. You are making a horrible mistake_ ," Ke'mani'pala answered.  
  
" _Just do it!_ "  
  
  
  
  
Thomas was completely knackered. Absolute, bone-deep weariness. Since breakfast the last several hours had been thirty minutes on, fifteen off to let his cardiovascular system rest and recover, but the repeated strain was starting to get to him. Then Abigail walked in the door doing a little dance. The sort of dance she’d done when she was correct, ever since she was a child.  
  
“Good news I take it?” He asked. His patient was unconscious, so he could chit chat for a moment without interruption.  
  
“Well, you know how much I love being right! A vaccine is almost done, and their working on an anti-viral solution but once it’s in the cell that virus is… well let’s just say it’s in the anomaly file. Spread in water and can hitch a ride in the cells of aquatic organisms like mosquitoes to spread directly, or into new water bodies. We don’t have much time before it goes global.”  
  
“Ah! Good thing you were right then.” Thomas replied, but then Kusko piped in.  
  
“Why bother?” She asked. “The Oldtypes die, it becomes a Newtype planet and Oldtypes can’t hurt them anymore.”  
  
Abigail winced. No one had taken on this conversation with her. “Lots of reasons. For starters, the deaths of billions would traumatize every telepath on this planet and lead to the collapse of civilization. The other reason is a bit more abstract.”  
  
Kusko’s follow up was genuinely curious, if blunt. “I’m not dumb, I can handle abstract. Lay it on me.”  
  
“The Law of Contradiction.” Thomas said flatly, and Kusko, not getting the reference at all, just stared at him. “Basically, everyone is the product of themselves and everything that came before them, interacting with the material conditions of the here and now. The throngs of mundanes here don’t deserve to die. Some of them might _have to_ , but over time many can be educated and change.” He shrugged. “They’re still people. And a lot of them lack any kind of context or framework to do anything but what they’ve been doing. Take Lily here as an exam—”  
  
“What did you say?” Abigail asked, suddenly ramrod straight but also practically ecstatic. But before Thomas could reply, Kusko felt like a die was cast. She held up a hand and sought, listening to the currents of everything around her to peer into the now-collapsing-future possibilities in her immediate surroundings.  
  
“Get back to the lab, _now_.” She commanded in no uncertain terms. She couldn’t tell them, or it would affect the outcome. “I have to go warn Richmond. Go!”  
  
They didn’t question it. They both booked it. Kusko also left, locking down the shuttle as she did to protect the unconscious telepath inside. She felt as much as heard the snapping of branches outside the camp perimeter, the tiny voices of men and women about to seize tactical surprise, trepidation, guilt. Uncertainty was collapsing even as she ran, finding the Lieutenant Commander at her little command post near the main entrance. For her part, Richmond noticed the commotion and was standing to face her.  
  
“Ms. Al, what seems to be the problem?” She asked. Too out or breath to speak, Kusko spoke directly into her mind.  
  
<United Earth attack imminent, _foreign_ agents inside the camp.>  
  
“How do you—” Richmond’s perfectly understandable question was interrupted.  
  
<Precognition. Alert your men.>  
  
That actually confirmed something Richmond suspected already, and she tapped on her own communicator. “Prepare for imminent enemy contact.” What officers she had commanding the enlisted security forces answered back in the affirmative, without even ten seconds of pregnant silence to spare.  
  
A few calls of warning from those members of the militia who could — and were trained to — sense hostile thoughts was all the warning anyone else got. Gunfire erupted from the perimeter and cut several of them down, but Richmond’s men were protected by personal shields. Bullets shattered against them on impact in puffs of metal and cavitation.  
  
A flash of warning she couldn’t even comprehend, and Kusko violently shoved Richmond a fractional second before a shot from a pulse gun passed through the space her face had occupied. She drew her own PPG and fired back, as additional pulse guns opened fire on Richmond’s men, the camp militia, and the United Earth Forces.  
  
Pandemonium erupted.  
  
  
  
  
The Berlaymont building and its environs showed through the cockpit of the _Jayhawk_. "Put us on the roof," Robert said from his seat. "That should ensure we're inside that anti-beaming shield."  
  
"Bringing us in," Talara answered.  
  
While she brought them to the landing, the ship's comms activated. Meridina's voice filled the cockpit. " _Robert, we have a hostage situation in the Atlanta telepath camp._ _It is Leonard_."  
  
Robert let out a weary sigh. _Of course, something else has to go wrong_. "What's going on?"  
  
" _A member of the camp staff is holding Leonard hostage, and Commander Richmond's units are being attacked by some of their militia and the United Earth military_. _The hostage taker is demanding we destroy all of our work on curing the bioweapon._ "  
  
Robert grimaced. "If we lose that work, even if we start over, it'll make stopping this thing a lot harder. It'll kill more people."  
  
" _Dr. Ke'mani'pala is presenting them with apparent cooperation, but Jarod has already backed up all relevant data._ "  
  
"Should we divert to Atlanta?" asked Gina.  
  
Robert drew in a breath and concentrated, considering the matter and seeing how his instincts, tied to the Flow of Life, led him. Both places were important and would require full commitments to see success. Should he save the UE government or stop the hostage situation?  
  
There was no clear or easy answer, but Robert came to a conclusion anyway. "If we don't stop Marias, it means this world ends up in civil war, and we wouldn't be able to stop the plague anyway. We'll have to deal with this first." Robert rose from his seat. "Talara, hold the ship down. Gina and I will be joining the Marines in the hold. Have the transporters ready for squad-by-squad deployment."  
  
"Yes sir," Talara answered.  
  
  
  
  
The arguing in the conference room of the Berlaymont didn't subside, even as renewed reports came in of the approach of the security minister's troops. Kaveri felt a sense of resignation over the folly of it all.  
  
"Minister Kanegawa, there's still time!" Fluck insisted. "Call out the army!"  
  
"I cannot guarantee they won't side with Marias," he countered. "I am not even sure we should be stopping him! The Reformists are a clear threat to the cohesion of our nation. Their proposed reforms would cripple us against Dissolutionist terrorism and would leave us vulnerable to further forced concessions. We might lose the entire Union!"  
  
"You do not know that, you cannot possibly know," Gupta insisted. "The Reformist states want a solidified civil rights position from the Union. It is something we should consider. It would certainly undermine the Dissolutionists' arguments!"  
  
"It will risk another global war in the future," Kanegawa insisted. "We can't afford another one, especially not now with other worlds to consider." He gestured toward the Alliance team. "We must remain strong, and maybe Marias is the best way to do it. He can consolidate the government and we can wait for a better time to reform."  
  
"If you don't stop him now, it will _guarantee_ a new war," Fluck argued. "The Reformists will not allow their governments to be seized as traitors, they'll fight back!"  
  
"If so, it proves their loyalty to the Union is weak," Kanegawa retorted. "Giving in to them will simply lead to another, greater war in the long run. No, the more I think about it, the more that we may need a period of strong central rule to suppress decentralizing forces that would weaken our government."  
  
Kaveri rose from her seat. "With all due respect, you are not considering this problem fully, Minister."  
  
Kanegawa's eyes honed in on her. "This is not an affair of your Alliance, Captain. Your input is neither requested nor required."  
  
"I do not speak as a Captain of the Alliance Stellar Navy," she answered, her eyes meeting his without flinching. "I speak as a child of the Earth of E5B1. An Earth that confronted the same problems your Earth now faces. We have fought our own conflicts concerning the power of EarthGov. We had to deal with the rise of telepathy among our population, and then the existence of alien powers beyond our solar system. Indeed, without the Centauri first contact we may have had a war just like the one your world just fought, with forces seeking to break the Earth Alliance up."  
  
Kanegawa did not respond. Gupta, perhaps seeing opportunity in Kaveri's words, nodded. "Please, Captain, continue."  
  
"Like your Union, the Earth Alliance made choices about its role toward the Earth. I am sad to say those choices were not happy ones. EarthGov has accumulated power and turned toward the authoritarianism that Minister Marias preaches, and you, Minister Kanegawa, consider so lightly. But the result was not greater security. The result was more conflict. Some, like the War of the Shining Star, killed millions. The others were smaller conflicts as different colonies or nations, even continents, sought to break away from an EarthGov they felt oppressed them. Ultimately, these conflicts helped to fuel the rise of outright fascism in our people."  
  
"Our treatment of our telepaths led down that same road. We took them and made them into recording devices under the law, we drove them into a ghetto we called 'Psi Corps', and then we used them as we saw fit. As tools of power, as weapons against the enemy. The result is a captive population of eighteen million souls who live or die by the word of those appointed by EarthGov to oversee them. Men who turned their captives into a tool for the oppression of others."  
  
"We barely escaped the victory of fascism on our Earth, Minister. The right man in the right place at the right time swayed the balance against those forces. But they still remain to haunt us."  
  
"Your world has a chance." Kaveri was speaking to all of the assembled now. "You have a chance to do _better_ than mine did. You can avoid the bloodshed and terror that my Earth has suffered with, all you need to do is make the decision here to walk the better path."  
  
She stopped and waited for them to react.  
  
  
  
  
The range of motion was returning to Leo's limbs. HIs motor functions were recovering steadily from the stun shot. He hoped that soon he might be able to go for the gun with a reasonable chance of success.  
  
For the moment, he kept talking. "You are ready to die?"  
  
"I am," she said, her lip quivering. Not from fear, Leo thought, but the sheer emotions roiling through her. "It's the least I can do for her."  
  
"For your sister, Lily." Leo swallowed. "I know it hurt you to see them take her, and I know it still hurts that you've never found her, but this isn't going to fix it, Rose! I've seen enough death to know that! It never fixes it! It only means more loss!"  
  
"You… you don't get it, do you?" Rose demanded. "You fly around in your ships with all of your technology, and you live like you do, and you don't understand just how evil people can get. How wrong things can be."  
  
"I _do_ understand!" Leo insisted. "Rose, I got into this work because I saw suffering people that needed someone to heal them! That's why I've become a doctor, to heal people, and that's all I've ever sought. And I've had to work hard at it, and sometimes, sometimes I couldn't save them." His lip quivered as his mind transported him back to the _Aurora_ OR where Joshua Marik's leukemia-battered body bled to death on the inside, no matter what he did to stop it. Or all of those over the years he had to black tag in triage because their wounds were too grievous, or who died without him being able to stop it.  
  
The mutilated Turian soldier on New Brittany. Dr. Lumenaram, blowing himself up in the Cybermen "conversion" unit they transformed the _Aurora_ OR into. And all of the other members of the _Aurora_ crew who'd died because he didn't have what it would take to save them.  
  
He swallowed. "Life is precious, Rose. All life. The people who took Lily forgot that. They let their hate and their fear guide them and they did terrible things. Don't go down that road, _please_. This isn't the legacy you want to leave for Lily."  
  
Rose's lip quivered and Leo thought he was getting through to her. Her hands started to lower the weapon.  
  
A new voice boomed in the room. "Do not let this spineless mute come between you and our work, Rose Williams," a man said. His voice seemed to echo in Leo's mind, as if the words were vibrating inside his brain.  
  
It helped Leo recognize them. He looked beyond Rose to the newly-arrived man.  
  
Lawton, the camp security chief, looked no different at first glance. But there was a difference in his posture and the way he carried himself. He was plainly not the same man Leo met when he arrived, with a stern, commanding look in his eyes that seemed to transfix Rose and keep her in place.  
  
"You have been annoyances," he said, glaring toward Leo and then the viewer. When his eyes narrowed on Leo again, Leo felt his diaphragm seize up. It was like his body's respiratory system was locked up, the autonomic nerves no longer allowed to transmit the orders that led to his breathing. Instinctive panic came to his face as he tried to force a breath to no avail.  
  
"Alien, you will begin an immediate computer system purge on your entire ship," Lawton demanded. "Or you will watch Doctor Gillam die quite slowly."  
  
  
  
  
In another part of the camp, hundreds of meters away, everything around her unfolded as a chaotic mess, but in Kusko Al’s mind there was a certain sublime clarity. In front of her, traitor militia, telepaths all. Behind her, Alliance troops and loyalist militia did battle with the UE security forces. Between superior weapons and personal shields, Alliance troops were not in much danger from the United Earth soldiers, but they’d be cut down by organized telepaths very quickly, but she couldn’t deal with all of them alone. Camp militia were leaderless and disorganized, still reeling from the shock of surprise contact.  
  
Kusko knew exactly what she had to do. She reached out with her mind and _absolute_ authority. _Kusko Al, Psi Corps, I am assuming command in the absence of Mr. Lawton._ She then glyphed a mental image that highlighted each telepath in formation as alternately green or red. _You are now designated. Greens, begin suppressive operations against UE forces. Reds, force-protection operations for alliance security. I’ve got offensive operations against traitor forces._ She didn’t want to order them to kill their own comrades, afterall. That could get messy and lead to defections.  
  
The militia complied, half of them split from the line under cover to move closer to Richmond and her troops and started jamming out attack probes. The other half, now having concrete direction, began assaulting United Earth troops. Some simply went down screaming, others shot their own men or pulled their own grenade pins. It created confusion in addition to casualties, and muted the effect of their raw numbers.  
  
Then she tapped a button on her omnitool, extending an orange hued straight blade from it’s holographic emitter on her left hand. Blade in one hand, PPG in the other, she went to work. She bolted straight in, rolling under a fusillade of pulse gun fire and moving with inhuman grace to side-step another that normal human reactions could never have allowed her to dodge, but she saw the probability cones of incoming fire collapse into unity before the triggers were actually pulled. She wasn’t inside the OODA loops of her enemies, she was inside their causal chain.  
  
Kusko dove head-first over a crumbling brick facade and drove her omniblade into one man’s chest. Blood fountained from his mouth as his mind screamed in agony and terror. Her PPG was already pointed at another woman who was coming around the corner and fired before she was even visible. She didn’t even look, the woman’s soul was pulled into the Door before her mind was even aware it was dead. An attempt was made to batter down her mental defenses, but it skittered over them like a handgun attempting to penetrate the armor of a tank. She traced it back to its source. Inspiration flashed across her mind.  
  
 _‘I’ll need that one later.’_ Instead of killing him, she shattered his own blocks like so much glass and dropped him into a coma.  
  
It felt like an eternity, but in reality it had been about twenty seconds since she’d first gotten moving. It was going to be a long few minutes.  
  
  
  
  
Robert and Gina stood on the transporter pad in the _Jayhawk_ cargo area while Marine teams under one of Anders' subordinates remained ready to join them. With his omnitool Robert was tied into the _Jayhawk_ 's sensors and the indicators showing the locations of the rampaging security troops in the building. They were nearly halfway up the building now. The defenders were fighting valiantly, but they lacked the numbers to hold every staircase and hallway. While they had President Lawrence safely under control, Premier Gorchkov was already a captive of Marias' troops, and they had nobody who could effectively stop the squads heading for the conference room.  
  
 _If we don't stop this soon, Captain Varma and Secretary Crawford and the others will be hostages_.  
  
"Prepare to go on my mark," he said. _I hope they ask for help soon, or I'm about to step on a diplomatic landmine_.  
  
  
  
  
Compared to before there was silence in the conference room, save for the quiet conversation Gupta was having with Lawrence over their internal comm system. When Gupta lowered her phone it was with resignation. "The President will not authorize a request for help unless the remaining Executive Council are in unanimous agreement."  
  
"I call yea!" Fluck declared. "Marias will either corrupt the Union into something that deserves to collapse, or he'll destroy it with another war! If we just sit down with the Reformists, we can make a deal that everyone can live with. They'll accept a greater central focus if we guarantee civil rights."  
  
"And how will the rest of the world feel if we concede like that?" Kanegawa demanded. "How will they take it if we repeal the Telepath Registration and Regulation Act as the Reformists demand? So many of these people fought for the unified Earth, if we undermine it to appease the Reformists they'll side with Marias!"  
  
"You overestimate that sentiment," Gupta insisted.  
  
"I've spoken to my officers, I've spoken to their soldiers, they fought and died for the idea of the United Earth, and we have to honor that!"  
  
Fluck let out an angry "Pah!" "You're just afraid of losing power," he accused. "If we step down from emergency control, the Defense Ministry will lose prerogatives."  
  
"I'm afraid we'll turn the army over to Marias! I'm afraid the Reformists' loyalty to our ideals is weak and insincere, and they'll use any concessions to break the Union into irrelevance. We'll be no better than the old UN from before the Third World War!"  
  
"Minister, you may be surprised by their sentiments and how much you would agree with them," Kaveri remarked. "They fought at your side against the Dissolutionists for a reason. You speak of the sacrifices of your soldiers, but remember they sacrificed too." When Kanegawa didn't respond right away she continued. "You have a chance here, sir. A chance few ever have: to decide the history of a world. The choice you make here, today, will shape the world you wake up in tomorrow. Do you really want that world to be shaped by your fear?"  
  
Kanegawa's face made it clear he was quite fearful. Fearful of Marias' troops, fearful of his military commanders feeling betrayed, fearful of the world descending back into war. He swallowed. Slowly the look on his face became one of resignation, but not a fearful resignation. "You are correct, Captain," he said. "I'm afraid. I… I lost my children in the war. My hometown. The Union is what I have left, and I fear for it. But fear is what led to the war, and it will bring another one." He let out a breath and brought up his phone. He tapped a single key. "General Roberts, this is Minister Kanegawa. Minister Marias is attempting to seize control of the Union government. I'm ordering you to dispatch your troops into the capital immediately, and warn all of your commands globally to suppress the Security Directorate."  
  
There was a tense moment as they waited to see if Kanegawa's senior officers would obey his commands. Kaveri felt a little surge of relief when Kanegawa nodded. "That's right, General, the Security Minister's gone too far. We'll do what we can to stop his forces here, but get those troops into position. Thank you." He hung up. "Marias will have me shot now," he said to the assembled. "Most likely all of us."  
  
As if to punctuate that remark, they could hear not-too-distant gunfire. Kaveri glanced at her omnitool and confirmed that at least a dozen armed figures were on the floor and closing in on their location. "Not if you ask for our help," she said. "Let us stop them for you."  
  
Kanegawa pursed his lips. Gupta said, "I'm in favor," as did the other ministers in the room. "Minister, we all die otherwise," she asserted.  
  
"This could be used against us." After saying those words, he let out a small sigh. "But we'll be alive. Madame President, I concur with my colleagues. We will need the Allied Systems' help."  
  
Lawrence's voice came over the speaker on Gupta's phone. " _Very well. Since the loyal elements of the Executive Council are in concurrence, Deputy Secretary Crawford, I formally request your forces aid the legitimate government against this_ coup _attempt._ "  
  
"Gladly, Madame President, we'll get right on it." Crawford nodded to Kaveri.  
  
"Varma to Dale," she said into her omnitool. "Captain, aid is formally requested. We need it immediately." She said that even as the sound of footfalls outside grew louder. Marias' troops were seconds away from arriving.  
  
Twin flashes of light formed in the room, in apparent defiance of the anti-beaming shield, and coalesced into the forms of Robert and Gina. The collected ministers were bewildered to see just two rescuers and both wearing robes over their armor. The sight further bewildered them when they saw neither had firearms. The room was filled with the twin snap-hiss of lightsabers igniting.  
  
The door flew open. Security troops appeared in the doorway, rifles raised. "Surrender or—"  
  
Robert's empty left hand came up. The ministers watched in amazement as the half-dozen soldiers in the doorway went flying as if struck by an explosion. He and Gina rushed forward, their weapons buzzing in the air, and soon emerald and sapphire flashes outside of the room were joined by surprised shouts and the occasional scream of surprise and pain. From her seat, Kaveri could see that they were fighting non-lethally, intentionally avoiding fatal blows while disarming their adversaries (in some cases, literally).  
  
After ten seconds the two figures re-entered the room. Robert's green lightsaber extinguished and he nodded respectfully to the assembled. "I'm Captain Robert Dale," he introduced himself to the Executive Council members. "A Paladin of the Alliance. This is a member of my operations team, Gina Inviere." He gestured to Gina. "We've got Marines beaming in to clear the _coup_ forces. If you want to tie us into your command and control, we'll adhere to it."  
  
That was for Crawford's sake and for Kanegawa, who immediately took Robert up on the offer.  
  
  
  
  
The vise-like grip on Leo's diaphragm refused to relent. Try as he might he couldn't breathe, and his body began reacting as he expected. His vision started to go out as he looked at the horrified face of Rose, her gun still pointed toward him.  
  
Then, for a moment, relief. He sucked in a greedy breath and exhaled. The moment his exhalation finished the vise returned. He couldn't breathe again.  
  
Lawton was glaring at the viewer. "I can sense your deceit, alien. You're backing up your research while making a show of destroying it. You will purge all of your ship's computer systems _now_ or he will die."  
  
" _Once your hostage is dead, you have no more power_ ," Ke'mani'pala replied. " _You cannot kill him_."  
  
"No? Even as I speak my followers are seizing the others from your ship that are in our camp. I'll bring them in here and make you watch as I kill them, one by one."  
  
There was a malevolence in the man's tone that was chilling. Leo noticed the torn expression on Rose's face. His mouth moved as he tried to speak, even with no air coming from his lungs. _You don't have to do this_.  
  
Rose seemed to know what he tried to say. She swallowed and the gun in her hands quivered with greater violence.  
  
The vise disappeared briefly. Leo brought in a breath, and spoke as he exhaled. "This is wrong," he managed to say before his breathing was cut off.  
  
Tears flowed down her cheeks. Leo could see the tension as his vision went back to the brink of cutting out. Whatever her feelings, Rose wasn't a killer, not deep down. It was one thing to be complicit in a plague that might kill people you don't see, but holding a gun on someone, helping to strangle the life out of them… that was entirely different. It would be even if they'd never talked, hadn't worked together, gotten to know one another.  
  
Rose's hands shook as the gun turned away from him. It focused on Lawton. "No," she said. "You… you can't do this, you can't kill someone like this!"  
  
He never lashed out. In the span of a moment Rose's hands opened wide and she dropped the weapon. A choked breath came from her throat before she dropped to her knees.  
  
"Your anger made you useful, mute," said Lawton. "But now, your use is at an end." He looked at Rose with murderous intent as she fell over, trying desperately to breathe. "Watch carefully, alien. This is the fate your shipmates will suffer if you don't cooperate."  
  
Suddenly, Lawton's eyes widened in surprise. The vise on Leo's chest let go. He could breath again and he sucked in air with wild-abandon. He didn’t notice the two other figures in the door until one of them spoke.  
  
“Run.” Thomas croaked through clenched teeth. “We can’t hold him off for long.” What Leo couldn’t see was the withering series of weaponized medical probes they’d surprised Lawton with, attacks that slid off even his casual-defenses like water off a swan’s back. He’d been concealing his power from them, just as he’d been concealing his intent.  
  
He struck back, aiming to incapacitate, and it took the combined strength of their gestalted mind — which would have been a match for a Psi Cop — to hold him back. That same attack was paired with a message.  
  
 _Join me, my brethren_. _I am Hab-Kuzad of the Ministry of Fate, and I come to you as a fellow telepath! Your people are just as oppressed by the mutes. The Ministry is ready to save you and bring you into the fold._  
  
And they believed him. He honestly did think he was helping; that the only way for telepaths to be safe was to rule over mundanes in perpetuity and by whatever means necessary.  
  
But that didn’t change the fact that he wanted to murder a world.  
  
 _Fuck That! We’re not helping you murder billions,_ they replied in unison, and to emphasize their refusal, attempted to provoke a catastrophic seizure.  
  
This time his defenses caught the attack, breaking it with little apparent effort. He might have flung it back toward them, but he held that back, instead pressing forth his will and the thought within. _Mutes outnumber us by a billion fold_ , he reminded them. _They will not be missed_.  
  
His mental voice echoed through the connection with the force of a piston. Inevitability filled every thought, every word in the sentiment of ultimate triumph Hab-Kuzad projected into them. _It is the destiny of the Esper to rule over the mute. For this they try to destroy us, but we have beaten them every time. We will always beat them. We were meant to be Kings!_  
  
The words came as hammer blows on their defenses, laced with the learned superiority he felt toward non-telepaths, and his conviction that they too would join him once they understood the world as he saw it. It was an inevitability as true as the solar winds, as mathematics, as gravity. The telepath will rule, the mute will obey or be crushed. The telepath serves as the agent of Fate itself and acts in that fashion in all things.  
  
But to the Spencers, it was fascism. Telepathic space fascism; like Bester turned up to a fever pitch and bolstered by past glories. The certainty itself was an attack, that feeling of inevitability intended to erode their resistance. However, it had the opposite effect. Fascism and its antecedents were the driving force of their own oppression, and they were not about to trade one oppressor for another; or to accept their lot in life as a servant so long as they had a slave beneath them. _And render life into a mere caricature of itself? We think not. We will fight our oppressors and win, but we will not become you._  
  
Hab-Kuzad sensed their sentiments as his attacks battered away at them. It confounded him. Every telepath loyally following him in the camp had bowed to these inevitabilities. These two resisted. Why? How? He redoubled his attack, this time throwing in recrimination, as if they were children to be lectured to and scolded for defiance. _You defy Fate!_ _You defy your own legacy! And for what? I offer you a future of glory and purpose! You have nothing that can compare!  
  
Your glory, your purpose. Not Ours._ Dozens of memories of mutual support and community coursed through their minds, but there was that one. Millions of telepaths staring down planetary destruction and rising up with one telepathic voice, even then in hope and determination for a better future. If not for them, then for survivors who’d made it off-world or were still in the colonies. The song of their own people rose in a great mental chorus across the entirely of the earth.  
  
 _‘We are strong in each other, we're sister and brother, And we will all come together in a better place, a better place than this. Our love will guide you, Our love will hold you. And our love will show us the way.’_  
  
When they allowed that memory to fade, they continued. _We have no desire to inflict upon others what has been inflicted upon us. That is the spite of a child, and it only ends in tears. Just the opposite, in time, we’ll eliminate_ all _oppression by_ leading _the mundanes toward a better future for everyone._  
  
The certainty in the Spencers met the inevitability in Hab-Kuzad's beliefs and produced a straining equilibrium. His raw power and conviction were yet insufficient to break down their assured knowledge of the love and common purpose in their community, purpose without strict control as Hab-Kuzad envisioned. But his power was still great and their efforts, great as they were, could not break through to stop the onslaught.  
  
 _I will not be beaten by this misguided foolishness_ , he insisted through the link. _The Ministry will have this world! You two cannot stop it!_  
  
Which was when his mind was assailed in the telepathic equivalent of a sucker-punch. Hab-Kuzad’s defenses held, but it was difficult and he reeled from the shock of it.  
  
 _Good thing there’s more than these two!_ Kusko’s mental voice boomed through his conscious thoughts. It was almost as big a shock to the Spencer twins who didn’t exactly disguise it.  
  
 _What can I say? I prefer utopian dreamers to dystopic ones_ was her only response. Then, she took off a glove and touched the back of Thomas’ neck, joining their gestalt and making for a much more even fight.  
  
To the Spencers' certainty in their sense of family came Kusko's experience. In Hab-Kuzad's system she saw the control and bloodiness of the Zabis intensified to a degree she never imagined. He would enslave her and other Newtypes with chains greater than any Zabi ever conceived.  
  
 _That is what is required of us!_ he raged, with Kusko's defiance bolstering that of the Spencers. _The Fates have decreed that role! To defy the Fates is to deny reality!_ His fury at that defiance briefly bolstered his attack. Wave after wave of hectoring washed over the three, scolding them for defying the way of the world, for denying the glory of their purpose as ordained by the All-Father.  
  
The very idea was preposterous. _History and reality don’t work that way, it does not use men. It is the actions of men pursuing their own ends. You have been lied to, used, just as the mundanes use us now._ It was countered with weaponized dialectical materialism.  
  
 _You know nothing!_  
  
Both sides of the fight were reeling. Given time the Spencers and Kusko might wear him down, but there were good odds one or more would stroke out first.  
  
That was when Leo returned with Rose, and this time, they weren't alone.  
  
The council of five that governed the camp joined them, Hab-Kuzad's words echoing in their minds along with the defiance of his opponents. Nysha held her hands out. Walter and Irma took those hands, and their hands in turn were taken by their other peers. Five minds became one, albeit clumsily, and as one they struck at Hab-Kuzad's mind.  
  
Theirs was not the same certainty that the Spencers had, nor the same exact experiences as Kusko's. But they had something of both. The experiences they and their people in the camp had with the forms of oppression their world still labored with armored them from Hab-Kuzad's conviction of inevitability, as they recognized it for what it was. From the five joined minds came something like pity, as Hab-Kuzad could not _conceive_ of anything but oppression.  
  
While his defenses held against the Spencers and Kusko, he turned his eyes towards the five. _You would fight for the banals? The people who experimented upon your families? Who turn your children into weapons?_ His attack was a clever one, as it played upon the resentments they felt. The anger at the injustices they'd endured. _This world should be yours. Help me destroy the mutes and those that would stand for them!_  
  
The appeal resonated. They struggled against it. Why should they fight to protect people who oppressed them? Why not let them all die and inherit this world?  
  
Nysha's eyes moved away from Hab-Kuzad's, trying to escape the pressure of his powerful, trained mind. She found herself looking at Leo.  
  
He and Rose weren't moving. Didn't dare interfere, for fear of harming the entire group in some way. But seeing him and the worry on his face, even as the blood trickled from her nostrils, reminded Nysha of something he'd said. Something that resonated within her.  
  
 _Because we're better than that._  
  
She'd thought those words were silly. Those of a man who lived in the luxury of his spaceship and never faced cruel reality. But then she'd seen him live up to the compassion in those words. The hours he spent saving people without thought or hope of reward. The world might be cruel, but Leo and his people showed they didn't have to wallow in it. They _could be better_.  
  
Walter added to the thought. His memory of history came to the gestalt's aid, recalled the words of a man that swayed his heart and, through him, their collective conscience. _I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character._ The words resonated through the gestalt as they considered the source and Walter's unwavering faith that Dr. King's words applied to telepath and non-telepath as much as it did to those of black and white skin.  
  
 _These 'banals' came to help us_ , the gestalt challenged Hab-Kuzad. _They fought for us. They healed us. And they asked us for **nothing**_. _They only want us to be free!_  
  
Freedom was a word Hab-Kuzad could not parse mentally. In his world of control it was virtually meaningless. A word with nothing behind it. _Freedom is a fiction!_ his mind raged instinctively at the idea.  
  
But for both gestalts, it was more. It was choice. It was life. It was the future they sought and they thought was worth dying for.  
  
Against the intensity of an idea he could not truly fathom, Hab-Kuzad's power failed. His defenses crumbled against their defiance of his convictions and the raw power behind them.  
  
For all of his training, eight minds with the right beliefs, the right convictions, was simply too much to stop.  
  
As the realization of defeat came, a subconscious impulse triggered in his mind, a programmed reaction to this outcome. The Spencers tried to stop it but to no avail, and all they could do was break the connection and urge Nysha's gestalt to do the same.  
  
They did at the last possible moment as the implant hidden in Hab-Kuzad's brain activated. A powerful agent flooded through his head, dissolving brain cells and tissue. He screamed and collapsed. All eight telepaths felt the cold sensation of the Door opening and drawing him in, slamming shut a moment later.  
  
Leo rushed up to the fallen man, his omnitool set for medical scanning. He swallowed at the results. "Looks like a suicide charge of some kind, an organic acidic agent's already liquifying his brain." Leo remembered the mission to Solaris, where a NEUROM operative had reportedly triggered a similar device when facing capture.  
  
“Yeah.“ Dr. Spencer replied. “It was… automatic, pre-conditioned in his mind, he couldn’t stop it if he wanted to.” Her voice was strange, mostly because she had a handkerchief to stop the nose bleed. The other reason telepaths never wore white.  
  
Leo stood back up and faced the viewer. "Doctor, we have backups I hope?"  
  
" _Of course, Doctor. Commander Jarod is restoring everything now. We'll be back to work shortly._ "  
  
"Good to hear." With his concerns there re-assured, he turned to Abigail and Thomas. "Thanks for the rescue."  
  
“Our pleasure. Though thank Kusko, she warned us and got us moving.” Thomas replied. “Speaking of which, Rose, there’s someone here you should see.”  
  
Rose looked at them with some confusion. Confusion that swiftly gave way to shock and hope as she thought about what they were saying.  
  
Leo looked from her to them. And then he thought of the telepath girl kept by the cell and his eyes widened.  
  
  
  
  
It was at the behest of the Earth Union's General Roberts that Robert and Gina fought their way into the Security Ministry building, advancing ahead of Earth army soldiers while the _Aurora_ Marines guarded alternative exits.  
  
Their opponents were of little concern, given the locals' training to fight telepathic foes didn't amount to much against their training and abilities. They took careful, conscientious care to not kill anyone they fought.  
  
And yet, they could feel death when they approached Marias' office. It was a fortified door, so Gina and Robert cut through the hinges with their lightsabers before knocking it down. Inside were two dead bodies, Ministers Winthrope and Tangri, and a very alive Marias bringing his pistol up toward his forehead. They felt his intention to pull the trigger.  
  
Robert's hand motioned toward the wall. Invisible force ripped the gun from Marias' hand. He stared at his open hand for a moment before scowling at them. "I won't be used against my homeworld," he swore. "I'll make you kill me!"  
  
"Your people will judge you for your crimes, Minister," Robert said, glancing down at the bodies. "Enough blood's been shed."  
  
Marias snarled in anger at that. "You think you can conquer us with kindness, divide us with your lies about rights. But my people will see you for what you are. They'll fight."  
  
"Your people are tired of fighting," Gina pointed out. "They want peace."  
  
Marias slumped into his chair, a defeated man, and did nothing but glower as Earth troops came in and took custody of him. Robert and Gina looked around the room and judged what was in sight, including reports. "Odd," Gina said, looking over a stack of orders and papers.  
  
"Hrm?" Robert looked away from a photo of Marias with a young woman in a set of digital camo BDUs. "What?"  
  
"He's been planning this for a while," Gina said. "The dates here…" She checked with the displays on his office. "If he'd waited another two days, he would have had three times the forces he used. And he would have had a unit in place to seize General Roberts and the rest of the military command."  
  
Robert's brow furrowed. His eyes moved over a small shrine: a folded Earth Union flag and a medal in a case with a photo of the same young woman in full uniform. _His daughter_ , Robert thought, given the facial resemblance. _She died in the war_. After that distracting thought he returned to Gina's findings. "He might have won," he said aloud. "Or would have had a better chance of winning, at least."  
  
"So why did he act today instead?"  
  
Given what was happening in Atlanta, Robert had an idea about that. "We'll let the local authorities figure that out," he said. "For now, let's get back to the Berlaymont. I want to get an update from Atlanta."  
  
  
  
  
The fighting was well over and the rogue security forces turned over to their comrades. Richmond was looking for Leo when she saw him, trailing the Spencers and Kusko. Rose was with him, trembling as she walked. "Doctor, are you alright?"  
  
"I am."  
  
"Have you found Lawton? His people seem confused about his role in this."  
  
"He's in the lab, dead. And he was a NEUROM agent."  
  
Richmond got the feeling he had something else on his mind. She ended up following as they approached the _Brahmaputra_.  
  
Thomas, with something of a dramatic flourish and overdone pressing of keys, opened up the runabout’s door. He led them into the living area where a young woman was asleep on the cot.  
  
It took Leo a second look to recognize his captor of the other night. She'd been cleaned up, although her blonde hair was still a mess. He heard a sharp gasp from Rose. Her knees hit the floor as she dropped down onto them.  
  
“She was taken to Andersonville and her memories got scrambled.” Thomas explained. “I’ve spent the last day reconstructing those memories. There are still some fuzzy patches and missing association paths, but I can go ahead and wake her up.”  
  
He did so, reaching into Lily’s mind and bringing her conscious mind out of the void-state he had it in. She emerged from that state remembering the conversation she was having with Kusko, but also having all of her original memories. She looked around, and saw her sister.  
  
The teenager looked blankly at the scrubs-clad woman at first. The memories in her head recognized the face, broadly, but emotionally she was stuck. Now that it was conscious her mind was trying to find the emotions in those old memories.  
  
Leo watched the tears flowing down Rose's face. She looked frozen, as if she feared this was a trick or a dream. She sniffled and managed the word "Lily".  
  
A little gasp came from the throat of the teenage girl. Her mind gently probed at Rose's.  
  
Rose nodded. When her mouth opened again, it was to begin singing. " _I come home in the morning light/My mother says, 'When you gonna live your life right?'..._ "  
  
Lily breathed in at that. There were tears in her eyes now. Her voice shook even as she started singing too. " _Oh mother dear we're not the fortunate ones/And girls, they wanna have fun_."  
  
Rose let out a sob before picking it up again, even as Lily joined with the same words. " _Oh girls just want to have fun. Oh girls, they just wanna have fun!_ "  
  
There were no more words. There didn't need to be. The sisters sang on in their minds while Lily dropped into Rose's waiting arms. Sobbing became laughter and became sobbing again as they held each other close, two loving sisters reunited when neither ever expected it again.  
  
Leo couldn't keep the tears from his own eyes. As it turned out, the telepaths were even more susceptible to the joy washing over them.  
  
He glanced Richmond's way. Her expression was controlled but her green eyes made it clear she wasn't unmoved.  
  
A single, gratifying thought came to him. _It looks like Rose got her sister back after all.  
  
  
  
  
Ship's Log: 18 December 2643 AST; ASV Aurora. Captain Kaveri Varma recording. The last holdouts of Security Minister Marias' _coup _forces have surrendered to the Earth Union government. It would seem many of the offices and branches of Marias' agency remained on the fence until the government survived the initial attack, allowing for a quick resolution to the crisis. None of the aid workers scattered across the world were harmed.  
  
The Reformist governments have pledged continued membership in the Union in the aftermath of the failed _coup _. Their leadership is in negotiations for a variety of reforms that will put the Union on a path away from authoritarianism.  
  
As for the plague, the efforts of the fleet's medical section have seen a vaccine successfully developed. It is being provided now to communities around the Southeast of North America and other possible infection sites. Dr. Diptheek believes a counter-virus should be available shortly that will reverse the condition in those already infected.  
  
Our efforts to learn more about the NEUROM operations have not gone as smoothly._  
  
  
The young man's face was twisted into a snarl. Meridina and Doctor Tusana were seated in front of him with Commander RIchmond. The Spencers and Kusko were to their right and Walter Smith and Irma Michaels to their left. Kaveri and Robert were behind them with Kaveri's adjutant Bet'tir at her side as always.  
  
"Hab-Kuzad is dead, and your camp's leaders rejected him," said Tusana, her Gersallian lilt speaking lightly and carefully. "There is nothing gained by obstinance."  
  
"Just tell them what they want to know, Mister Tanner," Walter insisted. "We could get you amnesty when we show the Unies you were programmed."  
  
"Amnesty?" Tanner spat at him. "That is what I think of your amnesty, traitor. We may have been stopped now, but espers _will_ rule this world," the man insisted. "When the Ministry of Fate governs and NEUROM rules, traitors like you will suffer the wrath of the Fates. The mutes will be put in their proper place. And my brethren and I will have places of honor in the All-Father's order."  
  
"The Alliance won't permit NEUROM to take this planet like that," Robert said. "We've stopped your plague and we'll help them find other agents. There's no reason to keep fighting for them."  
  
"Stay to your own place, Forceful!" Tanner shook his head. "The only way for espers to survive is to rule mutes completely. We were meant to be Kings. That's what Fate's decreed. Our victory is inevitable."  
  
"Why are you talking like this?" asked Irma. "Calling people 'mutes' and talking about Fate like it's God or something? And what's this about espers?"  
  
"It's how people from S0T5 refer to telepaths," Robert explained. "They call them espers, and a word for non-telepaths is 'mute'." He stepped forward and reached through the Flow of Life for Tanner. Tanner let out a hiss and struck at his mind, but he used his powers to stop the attack. "His very nature's been twisted. Some kind of mental programming? It reminds me a little of what I sensed in Saren, but it's not nearly the same thing as Reaper indoctrination." He remembered that innate twisting he'd felt in Saren and those Salarians on Virmire. It wasn't what he felt here, but there was something fundamental about Tanner's mind that was out of place. Something in his presence in the Flow of Life was innately shifted.  
  
Tanner's reaction was to attack again. This time the other telepaths stepped in. Meridina and Tusana blocked the attack and the Spencers slipped through his defenses with attack probes. Abigail rendered him unconscious while Thomas started sifting through his memories. Walter and Tusana joined him.  
  
"There is something peculiar in his thoughts," said Tusana.  
  
"I sensed this in Hab-Kuzad's mind." Walter shook his head. "It isn’t gibberish but I don’t know what it is.."  
  
Thomas spoke. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Bet'tir? Anything?” He asked the Dilgar. _There’s an order to it but I can’t figure out what it is. Maybe the Mha’dorn has seen something we haven’t._  
  
The Dilgar also took a look. Peering through Tanner’s mind and rifling through the memories to find a baseline, something that would be easy to interpret, the first real concrete memory Tanner had was the easiest one, blowing out the candles on his third birthday. But it was off somehow, even for a human mind it was just ever so slightly out of sync. She looked at other psychologically foundational memories and they were anomalous too. Then she got it.  
  
“It’s like a mathematical transformation. All the information is there but it’s been shifted around and mapped differently. All roads lead to NEUROM. It’s so pervasive you can’t disentangle them all without a complete mind-wipe or figuring out exactly what was done. Something like it was tried during The War as part of Len’char’s counter-intelligence efforts…” Both Thomas and Abigail knew what that meant. Spectacular levels of evil and incompetence.  
  
“So, Bet'tir, what you’re saying is, we’re going to need a protracted research effort to figure out how to deprogram these people.”  
  
“Yes, that is an accurate summation.” Bet'tir answered. “There is a good chance that the necessary work will not pass a Psi Corps Institutional Review Board.”  
  
Robert shook his head in disgust, but even that paled to the sheer uncomprehending horror that Meridina and Tusana shared. This went far beyond even the worst their people imagined as an abuse of telepathy. This was the warping of a mind, a living being, into another shape.  
  
“And fixing it to restore the willing-victims… will likely require us to do the same, only in reverse. In the mean-time, their plans are not as concealed as all that. Memory vaults, but not encrypted inside other memories.” Thomas wasn’t happy about that first part, but it was a job for Sigma and the Mha’dorn. Maybe the Gersallians if they could stomach it. “We can crack them, give us a minute.”  
  
A vaulted memory was simply a memory that had its patterns of association cut, so one couldn’t reach it from other thoughts. Encrypting memories hid them inside the structure of other memories. An alert telepath could detect a vault with a naive deep scan, not so with encryption. Once detected, a vault was easy to crack open, and it took Thomas all of a minute sort through the contents.  
  
“Hm. Not as blood-thirsty as we initially thought. They were planning on forcing a new civil war, and making the Reformist states dependent on them to fight off their enemies and the plague. Nominally independent when the dust settles, but completely dominated by NEUROM indoctrinated telepaths.”  
  
"They must have anticipated our eventual arrival," Meridina said. "But we arrived earlier than they planned."  
  
"Thanks to Becca bat Gurion," Robert mused aloud. "Undone by another telepath."  
  
“We’re going to have to pass this up the chain.” Kusko said. “I can’t imagine they aren’t pulling strings in the Earth Alliance. If they aren’t now, they soon will be.”  
  
"I'll add this to my next report to our government as well." Robert fought down the anger he felt at this. _If it's not the Aristos getting off on torturing people, it's NEUROM brainwashing them._ He noticed the intent look of Meridina, who didn't need to say or project anything to show her worry at the anger he was feeling. He tried to reassure her by relaxing the look on his face and focusing himself on the Flow of Life around them. _The last thing I need is to end up like Hawk_.  
  
“The nice thing about _just_ being a telepath is that we can just be pissed without the universe being disappointed in us and turning us into monsters.” Dr. Spencer smirked. “But don’t worry too much about us. Forewarned is forearmed!” There was a propaganda poster about that somewhere. “If you manage to capture more agents, we’ll take them.” IRB or no, the deprogramming work was absolutely necessary. “Speaking of which, Rose and Lily. We’re prepared to offer them asylum.”  
  
Robert nodded. "Leo offered them the same thing on my behalf."  
  
Tusana smiled softly at Thomas. "You did good work in restoring her memories as you have. I have built upon it by helping her rebuild some of the missing association paths. For her emotional well-being the memories of her imprisonment are currently vaulted until she is ready to open them."  
  
“Thank you. For all of it really. There are certain drugs that can be used to help process those memories without being triggered by them. So she’ll have excellent post-acute care.” He was referring of course to MDMA.  
  
"We have similar drugs, although our preference is for _farisa_ therapists to aid the victim in processing the memories with emotional support."  
  
"They would both face serious charges from Earth authorities," Kaveri said, bringing them back to the subject. "The local government may have fought off an authoritarian _coup_ , but I would fear for the elder Williams' life if she ends up in their custody."  
  
“Treason for Rose, Terrorism for Lily, yes.” Kusko had checked the relevant laws.  
  
"That's why Leo had Richmond keep them on the _Brahmaputra_ when it came back," Robert said. "The Williams are aboard now, he's got them in spare medical assistance quarters on Deck 12."  
  
With Captain Varma there, Kusko was reminded of something. “Before I forget, Captain Varma, when I got my marching orders I was instructed to give you this should I see you.”  
  
“Oh?” Kaveri looked at her somewhat intrigued. Kusko reached into one of the pockets inside her uniform coat and pulled out a small box and an envelope sealed in wax.  
  
“Fowler regrets not being able to make the wedding.” She handed them over. Kaveri pulled out a small blade to open the envelope and read the contents. Both a congratulatory card in bright flashy colors and a letter written in a script so precise that it might as well have been printed by a machine. Then she opened the box with a soft smile and closed it up again.  
  
“Oh gods, that old warhorse is far too kind. Thank you Ms Al, if you could convey to him my thanks and sincere affection?” Which was definitely there, purposefully allowed to leak through the Captain’s habitual internal mantra.  
  
“Of course Captain.”  
  
  
  
  
It was still the late afternoon when the party from the _Aurora_ arrived at the telepath camp. Robert and Gina were personally escorting Deputy Secretary Crawford and members of his staff. They materialized in the camp commons.  
  
Leo was there, waiting for Nysha and her fellow councillors. The Spencers were beside them.  
  
Before he could begin introductions, Crawford stepped forward with a big grin on his face. His hand came up. "Nice to meet you folks," he said in his most charming drawl. "I'm Deputy Secretary Travis Crawford, Alliance Foreign Office, and I've been dyin' to see how you folks have been getting along."  
  
His mind wasn't singing anything, or showing any signs of anything but just outwardly presenting a gregarious form of charm. Nysha grinned at the sincerity she felt and accepted the hand. "Chairwoman Nysha Williams, sir. Welcome to the Atlanta Telepath Settlement."  
  
Crawford took in the place and nodded. "Still gettin' things back to normal around here, I can see. I hope our people can help you out with that, get you some homes set up real soon."  
  
"That would be good, Mister Secretary. Living in tents gets old after a while."  
  
"Oh, I reckon it does!" He gestured to his sides. "Captain Dale and his nice young lady Miss Inviere saved our hides in Brussels, and he wanted to meet you folks too."  
  
Robert introduced himself formally and did so with Gina. As he spoke, he briefly looked toward the Spencers with some concern at what he was sensing from them.  
  
Through that entire exchange, both the Spencer twins looked ever so slightly stricken and pale. In their minds it was like they were seeing a ghost. But not just any ghost, some sort of Hitlerian poltergeist. They cleared it quickly as soon as attention was turned on them and logic reasserted itself.  
  
Crawford offered his hand, the same warm smile on his face. "Well now, the folks from the Jenny Winters Foundation, right? I hear you were a big help with this terrible plague situation, and that nasty fellow tryin' to stop us from curin' it."  
  
“Um. Yes. ” Abigail accepted his hand in her own gloved one. “And it was a pleasure to do that, fascism has no place in all of existence. I’m… I’m sorry Mr. Secretary I don’t generally find myself at a loss for words.”  
  
“She really doesn’t.” Kusko was giving her the strangest of looks.  
  
“But, and I know this might seem crazy… You’re not a Mississippi Crawford, are you? Related to one Lee Crawford?”  
  
Crawford furrowed his brow for a moment. "Well, I sure am. I'm from Texas myself, out near Tyler, but Lee Crawford of Mississippi was my great-grandpappy. He was one of the first warp-flight astronauts, took the _Trailblazer_ out to Tau Ceti in his day. I'm guessin' he existed in your history too?"  
  
“He wrote the Crawford-Tokash Act. And… the resemblance is uncanny.” She shook her head, put somewhat at ease. “I’ll admit when you walked in the experience was more than a bit surreal.”  
  
"Well now, didn't intend to give you folks a start." Crawford's smile faded into a somber look, and Robert felt some unease in him. "The Crawford-Tokash Act. I read up on that. Terrible law. Written by an unkind man. I guess I now know why great-grandma took my grandpappy and his sisters and hightailed it home to Texas."  
  
“Not your fault, there’s no need to apologize for it's just, well, I guess no matter how many universes there are, the world is still small.” Thomas interjected.  
  
"It sure can be," Crawford said. "Well, we've got the folks in Brussels reconsiderin' their laws about telepaths, maybe we'll get EarthDome to do the same one day. The way I see it, you folks should be as free as any one else on God's green earth, mind-readin' or not."  
  
They both grinned. “Yeah, maybe one day.” Abigail said, but her voice said ‘soon’ in a completely deniable way “Not that I’m able to comment on Earth Alliance policy, of course.”  
  
Given the Secretary's time was as valuable as her own, Nysha spoke up. "Is there anything you'd like to see first, Mister Secretary?"  
  
"I hear you've still got folk recoverin' from that attack," he said. "If they're willin', I'd like to shake their hands and wish them well."  
  
After Leo nodded in approval on the idea, and the fact there were people able to receive visitors, Nysha said, "This way then, Mister Secretary."  
  
As they walked on, Robert took the time to shake the Spencers' hands as well. _Thanks for helping my friend_ , he thought, the image in his head clearly on Leo. _And give my regards to Dr. Meier and his husband Mister Hendricks. I can't always keep in touch_.  
  
 _The entire central committee will be getting a briefing and we’ll make sure to include that._ Thomas replied.  
  
Robert walked on, picking up his pace to catch up with the group. As he moved along, he could hear Thomas humming a familiar tune. _I guess they have the Twilight Zone too_ , he thought to himself.  
  
Abigail p'cast a reply. _Oh yes! But not enough to prepare us for that. I’m going to put in a note to revise the curriculum._  
  
His reply was a low chuckle.


	6. Chapter 6

**Tag**  
  
  
It was the evening hour in Atlanta when Crawford's visit ended. After he and his staff returned to the _Aurora_ Robert arranged a return transport for himself, Gina, Leo, Richmond, and the Spencers with Kusko.  
  
They were met in the transporter room by Dr. Tusana and the Williams sisters. Rose's red hair was again pulled into a pony-tail. Lily's hair, while still short, was combed and brushed into something other than the mess it'd been before. They were still arm in arm and looked like it would take a tank to separate them. Her grungy clothes had been replaced by a cleaner and brighter ensemble of a yellow skirt and sundress.  
  
"We've talked with Dr. Tusana, and we've decided to take up your offer of a place at Tau Atrea," Rose said to the group, particularly to the Spencers. "It sounds like a good place to start over."  
  
“The Corps in general is. Though you might be in for a bit of a culture shock. I hope you like Soviet realist art…” Kusko replied.  
  
"It has to be better than the stuff the New Confederacy plastered everywhere," she replied. "And the Unies' stuff is terrible."  
  
Robert chuckled. "It reminds me of old motivational posters in my school days. Not nearly as motivating or inspiring as intended. Although I admit I felt the same about what I saw on Tau Atrea. I've never been one for that kind of art."  
  
“Hey now! You be nice! That’s decades of capitalist propaganda talking.” Abigail protested with good humor. “In all honestly though, it’s a rough and tumble frontier colony, but growing. Think American West with clean water, sanitation, and any bandits who do show up won’t live long enough to regret their life choices.”  
  
"It's not rubble, at least, and our parents won't be showing up." Rose ran a hand through Lily's hair, tousling it much to her sister's enjoyment.  
  
“I basically went straight into the military, I’m just waiting on my home ship to be commissioned.” Kusko said “But there’s a lot for civilians to do, and the Corps will make sure you have something that suits both your skills and what it is you want to do. So you won’t be bored either.”  
  
"I really like being a nurse," Rose confirmed. She turned her head to Leo and bowed her head. "I'm sorry, Doctor, for everything."  
  
"And I'm sorry for trying to kidnap you," Lily added.  
  
Leo's response was a friendly grin. "No harm was done in the end," he said. "And it brought you two back together, so I figure everything worked out."  
  
"You're one of the good ones," Rose said. "I think that's really why Hab-Kuzad wanted you gone. You were making people in the camp willing to think well of outsiders again. He wanted to turn everyone against ban… against non-telepaths."  
  
Leo nodded. "That's how people like that work. They use fear and hate to control the rest of us. It's why it's so important that we don't act on our fears, even if it means we might get hurt."  
  
“Basically a telepathic space-Nazi… which isn’t something I ever thought I’d see. Don’t beat yourself up too much Rose. Most of us would love to have a sister who’s willing to do what you did for our sake… just not, you know, going that far.” Thomas added “As to nursing, we’ve got you covered there. We’ll get you up to speed. Any thoughts of your own Lily?”  
  
"A lot of thoughts. It's good to have my own brain back," she said. "Although I feel really bad for Regina, whoever she was. I'm… I'm not sure she was one of the survivors." Lily brushed away a tear and, at Rose's concerned look, hugged her tightly. "It's okay. I know that I'm lucky in a lot of ways, and I want to live up to that. Maybe I can help people like Mister Sinclair or Dr. Tusana helped me, or protect them like Kusko or Commander Richmond."  
  
RIchmond inclined her head. Her expression was pleasant and she spoke quietly. "You'll find your own way, I'm sure."  
  
“There’s no need to decide right now. We have a thorough curriculum that should give you a taste of everything you can do, and from there decisions can be made. I hope you liked school as a kid… both of you, because there’s gonna be a lot of that.” Abigail grinned. There would be a _lot_ of those motivational posters.  
  
"Sir." The Dorei transporter chief, a purple-skinned woman with blue spots and light teal hair and eyes, looked up from her console. "The _Father Xabier_ just signaled. They're preparing for their return jump to E5B1 and are awaiting the passengers' transport."  
  
"Looks like it's time to go." Rose and Lily started with Leo, giving him a hug and moving on to the others. Gina accepted hers with slight bemusement but a legitimate warmth.  
  
Kusko wasn’t so much of a hugger but accepted their hugs anyway. _Don’t go into engineering on the ship. Chaos reigns there._ She glyphed them warning imagery of a ramshackle engineering section kept together with strong vocabulary and quick thinking.  
  
The other two were far more enthusiastic about hugs.  
  
 _Where did the ship gets it name? Did Father Xabier have something to do with Jenny Winters?_ Lily actively thought.  
  
Abigail answered that one. _He was a Basque Catholic priest who sheltered telepaths from pogroms, both when we were first discovered and then fifty years later when we made contact with the Centauri. Jenny Winters is… a long story. Short version; a young telepath who was enslaved, rescued and indoctrinated by a terrorist cult, before she was finally liberated from them. Later, she went into our Education division and made a name for herself talking people off the Sleepers, drugs people can take to suppress their telepathic talents._  
  
With Lily's curiosity sated, the sisters stepped up on the transporter pad. With a final wave they disappeared in twin bursts of light, their departure marked by a short electronic buzzing sound.  
  
"We'd better get back down to the camp," Leo said. "Things are looking better, but there's still a lot of work to do."  
  
"Right." Robert noted his omnitool light up. He read the message and took in a breath. "And I've got something to see to." He gave a significant look to Gina, who recognized what he meant immediately. When she checked her own omnitool, she found the same message.  
  
 _Finished decoding new section. Need to see everyone ASAP. - Lucy_  
  
  
  
  
It was late in the _Aurora_ 's formal day, with Beta Shift on the duty watches, when the group assembled in Science Lab 1 at Lucy's summons. Robert and Gina arrived just after Jarod, and Talara came a moment later. Meridina appeared with Kaveri and Bet'tir coming last. They approached the central holo-table of the lab while Jarod confirmed the final lines of Lucy's decoding work.  
  
"It's a… poem?" Gina asked, surprised.  
  
"It looks that way."  
  
The words hung in holographic light in front of them.  
  
 _In Doom, In Ruin, In Broken Despair;  
Queen of the Fortresses! Flower of the Rim!  
To go to Reshan's Temple, first to leave  
Time, space, and fair stars.  
By the Wings of Infinity  
Travel to madness, travel to wastes  
Travel to the End of Sanity  
Travel to the Limits of Pain  
To reach Reshan's Temple  
First Afam'oso must be gained  
Where Hope Met Darkness  
The Path must Begin_  
  
Robert felt the surprise in Meridina and Gina. He glanced toward them, as did Bet'tir, Lucy, and Talara. "What is it?"  
  
"Afam'oso." Gina swallowed. "I read about it when studying the Order's history. It's a legend from Swenya's day."  
  
"It's a great battle Swenya is said to have fought," Meridina said. "It was said she led a great army to victory against overwhelming odds. The legend speaks of her arrival at the battle as being 'living hope'." Meridina drew in a breath. "It's always been a mystery. There is no place on Gersal or its earliest colonies by that name. Some believed it to be part of the great war she fought in, but it was never associated with that war in the surviving accounts."  
  
"The other theory was that it was a lost localization, or from one of the languages that died out after Kohbal's uprising," Gina said.  
  
"It's not Gersallian," said Jarod, looking at the book itself. "It's Portuguese."  
  
All eyes turned toward him.  
  
" _A Famoso_. It means ' _The Famous_ '," he continued. "It was a nickname of the Portuguese fortress at Malacca during the height of the spice trade."  
  
"What does a sixteenth or seventeenth century Portuguese fort have to do with any of this?" Lucy asked.  
  
"Probably nothing," he admitted. "But it might have been the inspiration for the name of another fortress or structure that was named in the original's honor."  
  
Robert finished tapping away at his omnitool and projected the results as a secondary screen on the holo-table. It was an article of the Encyclopedia Solaria from S0T5. "It's a legend there too," he said.  
  
Kaveri read the text. "The Earthreign, again," she murmured.  
  
"Looks like it," Robert agreed, not enthused at all with the connection. "It looks like it's some legendary fortress that was said to have survived the Reignfall. But nobody knows where to find it in the Fracture."  
  
"So the poem refers to some legendary lost space fortress that a lot of people have apparently died trying to find." Lucy let out a frustrated "ugh". "Why can't it be a simple starmap? They might as well want us to find Atlantis." She tapped at the controls to the computer. "Maybe I can set up a search wide enough to find out something more?"  
  
"That might not be necessary." Jarod pointed at the poem. "Consider that line, before the bits about traveling."  
  
"' _On the Wings of Infinity_ '," Bet'tir read. "I fail to see the significance, Commander?"  
  
Robert breathed out in frustration and lowered his head.  
  
His action was noted, but for the others' benefit Jarod brought up another image, showing a stylized winged Moebius strip.  
  
"Winged infinity," Kaveri remarked.  
  
"Exactly." Jarod nodded. "But better known as the logo of Pan-Empyrean Holdings, a major megacorp on Solaris. _The_ megacorp."  
  
"Sidney Hank," Robert sighed.  
  
"You still owe him a favor for the information that led to us rescuing Julia, don't you?" Lucy asked him.  
  
"I do," he replied. He lamented the fact, but not the reason for it. "Let's hope he doesn't want another one." Robert used his omnitool to activate a connection to the IU communications network. "I'll see if he'll answer a message about this."  
  
"What does a Solarian business tycoon have to do with all of this?" Kaveri asked.  
  
"Honestly, there's more to Hank than just that," Jarod noted while Robert worked. "He's a peculiar individual. Some of the evidence we've seen indicates he's existed in some form for at least two thousand years. Nobody knows if it's true, or how it could be true. The best theory is that he uses mind-state computer backups and clone bodies, but it shouldn't be possible to retain that much memory in a Human being's brain."  
  
"Well, that's unexpected," Robert murmured. Before any of them could ask he projected the incoming call onto the holotable.  
  
The visage of Sidney Hank appeared, wearing a fine business suit and seated in a high office chair emblazoned with the winged Moebius. He took a small sip of what looked like his favored brandy. " _I've been waiting for this call_ ," he said. " _You finished decoding the book up to the poem?_ "  
  
A number of the others blinked in surprise, but Robert simply nodded. "I'm not surprised you know," he said. "But yeah."  
  
" _I always thought the poem was a little self-indulgent,_ " Hank remarked, as if confiding a secret. " _But the old man had his quirks. Anyway, now you need the directions to_ A Famoso _. It won't be easy. It's at a meta-stable point in the Fracture. Think of it as an oasis of space-time stability. You won't enjoy the experience getting there._ "  
  
"Oh, I was already sure of that. But Ledosh was ready to die to get us the book," Robert replied. "So we'll go anyway."  
  
" _Good for you, Captain, that's the spirit_." Hank grinned. His eyes never moved, nor did his hands, but Robert noted data coming in on an encrypted subchannel. " _These are the necessary coordinates to find the fortress. Be there within forty-eight hours. Hank out._ "  
  
After his image disappeared Robert relayed the coordinates to the system. "Looks like it's outside of NEUROM or Aurigan space," he said. "We should be safe taking the _Jayhawk_ , but we'll have to leave now to get there within the time limit."  
  
"Then you had better depart immediately," Kaveri said. "I imagine that given the message left in the book, you will be bringing Commander Meridina and Commander Jarod?"  
  
"I think it's wise to," he replied. "Will you be okay with that?"  
  
Kaveri nodded. "Commander Locarno has command experience, and Lieutenant Tra'dur has filled in the role before. We will be fine. Better, perhaps, than you, given what I have learned of the Fracture's effects upon telepaths and metaphysically-gifted people."  
  
"Oh, this part is going to suck, no doubt about that." Lucy stood alongside Jarod.  
  
"I will have a jump to S0T5 prepared for you," she said. "The spatial aspect of an attempted jump to Kerkyra should get you within the range you need, if we are fortunate."  
  
"Thanks." Robert nodded to her. He followed it up with a nod to the others. "It's about time we received answers."  
  
They agreed, and as one they left the lab.  
  
  
  
  
In his private office on the _Villa Straylight_ , Sidney Hank stared into space for a few moments. A small sigh of resignation came next, after which he stood. "Dionysus."  
  
" _Yes?_ "  
  
"Alert Black that I need Green's services. Blue's as well, if he can find her. And have Ms. Montague report to him as well. And for the hard part, activate the hyperwave transceiver." As he spoke Hank approached the control to his secret room. It opened. He stepped in and let his eyes wander to the images on the wall. Remembering the good times, and the desperate, that the images represented, he went to the box in the middle of the room. He considered the vast amount of time he'd waited for this moment and all it portended before he picked it up.  
  
When he emerged back into his office, the blue outline of a figure in repose appeared. The Alekto looked relaxed and confident, which was not uncommon for her, but which Hank’s own brutal experience told him was highly deceptive. Hank ignored the part of his mind that recognized he should be intimidated as hell by her power, even with the logic routines from Dionysus bolstering that sense.  
  
She surveyed him, curious and expectant. He held up the box. "It's time," he said. "Dale and his people are on the way to A Famoso."  
  
" _Very well_." The look on her face was not quite contentment, nor satisfaction. Just a faint bit of eagerness, he thought. " _We'll meet you there, and I'll decide once and for all whether these children are the ones we've waited so long for._ "  
  
“Why do you think you’re the one who gets to make that decision?”  
  
The Alekto laughed. “ _Well, the Doctor isn’t going to be there, is he?_ ” She paused, and then looked at him with an expression that conveyed earnest seriousness, an almost impossibly rare emotion in the mercurial and dangerous creature he now faced. “Hank, we have to get this right. Trust me for what I’m good at.”  
  
  
  
  
The dawn sky over New Liberty was chasing away the vestiges of night over Julia's head while she led Miko through another set of forms. She found special enjoyment in going through them herself given her stress over Dr. Schneider and her concerns about the psychiatrist's motives.  
  
When the final form finished, Julia was pleased to note how well Miko went through the entire set. As much as Miko preferred more direct exertion of energy, Julia thought she was clearly coming to grips with the principles of _t'ai chi_. "Miko, maybe it's time to try something new," she said, putting confidence in her voice to encourage her student.  
  
"A new form, Sifu?" Miko asked politely.  
  
"Yes and no. Come here."  
  
Julia led Miko to the lake shore while admiring the shimmering dawn light on its crystal blue surface. Once they were up to the shore she moved into a stance and made a push-pull motion with her arms. Miko stated doing the same. "I want you to concentrate on that," she said, stopping for the moment. "Keep that motion up."  
  
"This is a Waterbending push-pull teaching form," Miko said. "I… it's never worked for me." Her eyes focused on the water, as if she could command it to obey with the intensity of her stare alone.  
  
"Don't focus on the water," Julia said. "Focus on your form. Feel the fluid motion in your body as you follow the form. Think of what it means to be fluid, to be water. Imagine your energy ready to shift itself in any given direction and follow the flow of the environment around it."  
  
Miko did as instructed. She continued the movements and was clearly frustrated at the lack of results, but she didn't give up. Julia watched her breathing relax. Her movement became more fluid, not relaxed but not rigid. Her arms were a continuous flow, forward and backward, push and pull.  
  
The surface of the water rippled.  
  
Julia heard it instead of seeing it. She turned her head and looked down. Miko's eyes journeyed in the same direction. They widened as the surface of the lake rippled in time with her arms, moving back and forth as if a wave generator was working on its surface.  
  
 _She did it_ , Julia thought, and a broad smile crossed her face. After weeks of worry that she would ultimately hold Miko back, trying to teach her a skill she could never actually perform herself, she finally had proof she was doing right by her new friend and student. _She's doing it! She's moving the water!_  
  
The water movement stopped because Miko stopped. She lifted her arms in triumph and shrieked joyfully into the air. "I'm Waterbending! I'm actually Waterbending!" She turned and threw her arms around Julia in a tight hug.  
  
" _Run!_ "  
  
The cry pierced the air and drew their attention, confused as it was. Julia recognized Liara as she ran up the lake path toward them, a mass effect pistol in one hand while the other waved frantically. " _Run now!_ " she shouted. "They're tracking you, they're after you!"  
  
Julia still wasn't sure what Liara meant. But given the year she'd had, and what the others had gone through over it, she wasn't about to stand around. She grabbed Miko by the hand and raced in the same general direction as Liara. Behind them, Julia heard gunfire, and the sound of projectiles striking the ground behind them. Once she knew Miko was following she brought her left forearm up. "Omnitool, emergency call to Colony Security, _now_."  
  
The omnitool's screen came up with an error. There was no signal. She was being jammed.  
  
 _Something must be jamming the planetary comms_ , she thought, as that was the only thing that made sense. _We have to get back to the Colony_.  
  
They met up with Liara as they approached the clearing before the park exit. There were no trees here for at least forty meters in any direction and the concrete path was laid out.  
  
At the exit the trees came back together, creating a wall of said trees for the exterior view of the parik. From those trees came two figures. One was, like Liara, an Asari, of a purple complexion, and the other was a red-colored Salarian. Both were in white and yellow uniforms with a big black circle insignia. They both raised firearms where they stood.  
  
Julia stopped, trying to keep them from opening fire while she considered new options.  
  
Their situation only got worse, however, as their pursuers came up behind them. They were another pair of Salarians carrying assault rifles with the same armor.  
  
"Eclipse mercenaries," Liara said, sounding as if she would hiss the words.  
  
There was no reply from them while more movement came from the trees. Julia looked in horror at one of the figures. He was one of the young Cameroonian musicians who played in the square. But now he looked pale and gaunt. His eyes were covered by a set of sunglasses, and his face was vacant of emotion.  
  
The figure beside him had the same pale skin and sunglasses, although the skin tone was much lighter. She smiled viciously. "The Dawn-Bearer, as expected."  
  
Her voice rasped and crackled. It reminded Julia of the 'Pretender' she'd fought on Noveria, who'd nearly killed her, Angel, and Richmond with inhuman strength. “Nyuru, I give you the Dawn-Bearer.” She pitched her voice to the mercenaries. “ _Kill the others,_ Contain Captain Andreys!” The woman idly produced a pistol as a personal shield glimmered around her. “We have five minutes to kill them before there’s a response.”  
  
The musician began to advance toward Julia with a snarl.


End file.
